Recipe: Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Guinness Cake

This cake couldn’t be easier to make—it’s a single layer with a crown of fluffy frosting, and you toss it all together on the stove top. The results are always delicious, moist but not overly dense, with that complex undertone of beery flavor. I make it every year on St. Paddy’s Day.

Chocolate Guinness Cake

From Feast by Nigella Lawson (reprinted in the New York Times on 12/8/04)
Yield: One 9-inch cake (12 servings)

For the cake:

Butter for pan
1 cup Guinness stout
10 tablespoons (1 stick plus 2 tablespoons) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups superfine sugar (I have used regular granulated sugar with no ill effects)
3/4 cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

For the topping:

1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup heavy cream

For the cake: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and line with parchment paper. In a large saucepan, combine Guinness and butter. Place over medium-low heat until butter melts, then remove from heat. Add cocoa and superfine sugar, and whisk to blend.

In a small bowl, combine sour cream, eggs and vanilla; mix well. Add to Guinness mixture. Add flour and baking soda, and whisk again until smooth. Pour into buttered pan, and bake until risen and firm, 45 minutes to one hour. Place pan on a wire rack and cool completely in pan.

For the topping: Using a food processor or by hand, mix confectioners' sugar to break up lumps. Add cream cheese and blend until smooth. Add heavy cream, and mix until smooth and spreadable.

Remove cake from pan and place on a platter or cake stand. Ice top of cake only, so that it resembles a frothy pint of Guinness.

(Images: Top image by Flickr member robbplusjessie, licensed under Creative Commons; and Susie Nadler for The Kitchn)

Do you think it's really worth using a springform pan or could you get away with using a standard cake pan? I hate cleaning springforms.

posted by Tiamat_the_Red on March 17th 2009 at 2:35pm
view Tiamat_the_Red's profile

Guinness tastes like carbonated soy sauce. Does the cake have that flavor as well?

posted by heather77 on March 17th 2009 at 3:14pm
view heather77's profile

The cake just has a bit of a yeasty flavour, but the chocolate really shines through. I just made this last night!
http://kitchengraffiti.blogspot.com/2009/03/chocolate-guiness-cake.html

posted by kitchengraffiti on March 17th 2009 at 3:30pm
view kitchengraffiti's profile

heather, if that's how you think Guinness tastes than this might not be the cake for you. I don't like Guinness per se and can't drink more than a quarter pint, but I love this cake (though you can definitely taste the Guinness).

posted by Squirrely on March 17th 2009 at 3:35pm
view Squirrely's profile

it would be fun to figure out how to serve this in pint glasses. :)

posted by thinkingwoman on March 17th 2009 at 3:47pm
view thinkingwoman's profile

Hi everyone!

Tiamat_the_Red, I think you could definitely do this in a regular 9-in cake pan if you like. Just butter the pan generously and line with parchment (I usually butter the parchment too).

Heather77, the Guinness flavor in the cake is definitely there, but it's subtle, and it mixes nicely with the chocolate.

I agree about the pint glasses! Wonder how that could work....

- Susie

posted by susiekn on March 17th 2009 at 3:53pm
view susiekn's profile

an alternative would be Tamasin Day Lewis' Bittersweet Chocolate Irish Whisky Cake...

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Bittersweet-Chocolate-Irish-Whiskey-Cake-238254

posted by mschatelaine on March 17th 2009 at 3:55pm
view mschatelaine's profile

I made a Guinness chocolate cake for a friend's birthday this weekend, and it turned out *awesome*. I make a Bailey's Irish Cream whipped cream ... which was tasty but looked kinda gross. Thinking that adding about 4 tbsp of Bailey's to Nigella's topping might work well!

http://brandiphotos.blogspot.com/

posted by rebelle on March 17th 2009 at 8:18pm
view rebelle's profile

I'll admit to totally cheating and using a boxed chocolate cake mix and substituting Guinness for the water in the recipe (i also decreased the amount of oil slightly). The results were still totally delicious. :)

posted by jkpenny on March 18th 2009 at 8:45am
view jkpenny's profile

We drank all our Guinness but I'm not going to wait a whole year to try this!

posted by cmcinnyc on March 18th 2009 at 10:56am
view cmcinnyc's profile

i just put this in the oven, but i was perplexed as to why i had so much more batter than could fit in my cake pan - granted, i'm not using a springform, so mine is probably shorter - but i decided to check the original recipe in the nytimes. it states that 3/8 cup of sour cream should be used, not 3/4 cup as stated here - please correct! i hope mine turns out okay. i ended up splitting the batter into two pans, and i'm hoping the one i started with doesn't overflow..

posted by bokeh on April 2nd 2009 at 11:10pm
view bokeh's profile

Thank you, your account has been registered.

We have sent an email to the address you registered with for verification purposes. Please use the link in the verification email to activate your account.

apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time