Diana's Guinness Chocolate Cake with Guinness Chocolate Icing Recipe - Allrecipes.com
Diana's Guinness Chocolate Cake with Guinness Chocolate Icing Recipe
  • READY IN ABOUT 2¾ hrs

Diana's Guinness Chocolate Cake with Guinness Chocolate Icing

Read Reviews (12)

"'The best chocolate cake I've ever had!' You'll hear comments like this and more when you serve this ultra dark, rich chocolate cake with its luscious chocolate icing. This recipe is adapted from one created by Diana, the talented editor of Allrecipes' UK site (allrecipes.co.uk). Use a chocolate bar with 74 percent cacao to intensify the chocolate flavor (not baking chocolate), and don't wait until St. Paddy's Day to make it!" —  

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Original recipe makes 1 9-inch layer cake Change Servings
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Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 2 9-inch cake pans, and dust with 1 tablespoon cocoa.
  2. In a heavy saucepan over low heat, heat 1 cup of stout beer, 1 1/4 cup of unsalted butter, 4 ounces of dark chocolate, and the superfine sugar just until the butter and chocolate have melted; stir to blend mixture, and cool slightly.
  3. Beat the eggs and creme fraiche together in a large mixing bowl; gradually stir in the flour and baking soda. Add the melted chocolate mixture in small additions, stirring to blend. Pour half the batter into each prepared cake pan.
  4. Bake in the preheated oven until the top of the cake bounces back when touched lightly with a finger, about 40 minutes. Cool the cakes on racks.
  5. To make the icing, place 1/2 cup of unsalted butter, 4 ounces of dark chocolate, and 5 tablespoons of stout beer in a heavy saucepan over low heat, and cook, stirring, just until the chocolate has melted; stir to blend mixture. Remove from heat, and cool slightly.
  6. Sift the confectioners' sugar. In a mixing bowl, blend the cream cheese, 1/3 cup of cocoa powder, and vanilla extract until smooth; gradually beat in 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar. Pour in the cooled chocolate-stout mixture and mix well. Add confectioners' sugar until the icing is your desired consistency, adding more if you like a stiffer icing.
  7. Place a cake on a serving plate, and smooth about one third of the frosting over the cake top. Place the second cake onto the frosted layer, and spread remaining two thirds of the frosting over the top and sides of the cake.
Kitchen-Friendly View
  • PREP 45 mins
  • COOK 50 mins
  • READY IN 2 hrs 35 mins

Footnotes

  • Cook's Notes
  • Sour cream can be substituted for the creme fraiche. Instead of buying superfine white sugar, make your own by grinding regular sugar in a blender or use a mortar and pestle.
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Reviews More Reviews

Most Helpful Positive Review
Aug 03, 2011

The cake is a 5 star cake. I had to knock the frosting down a bit tho, thus the 4 star rating. The only thing I changed was to make cupcakes, but other than that I made this cake EXACTLY as instructed, and I made the frosting EXACTLY as instructed. I'm NOT a beginner cook, and I've taken cake decorating classes before. The problem I had was w/ the frosting. It was the right consistency for a filling, but not for piping work. I ended up using the frosting to fill my cupcakes, but a different recipe to frost them. It's an amazing from scratch cake!

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Most Helpful Critical Review
Mar 18, 2013

I made this recipe exactly as directed and I found this cake dense, with the Guinness giving it a funky flavor. The frosting was flat. It definitely needed salt. I won't ever make this again. I really wanted to love this recipe.

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16 Ratings

Jan 12, 2013

I seriously questioned the unusual execution of this recipe but I followed through and was rewarded with a rich and buttery, light chocolate cake. I was so hesitant to make the beer infused frosting that I played it safe and didn't. (Besides, I wanted a white frosting to show off the green and gold Packer colors for our big playoff game tonight!) But I will be the first to admit that this is so light chocolate that it would have been better with a rich chocolate frosting, even if the one included in this recipe isn't used. Recipe notes: I did use Guiness, ordinary table sugar rather than superfine, which really isn't necessary, and sour cream rather than the pricier creme fraiche.

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Mar 11, 2012

This cake is yummy. The cake isn't very sweet but the icing brings the sweetness in. Loved the dark chocolate.

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Mar 16, 2012

Not too rich, very tasty. My friends and I all tasted banana for some reason? Maybe its in the Guinness. I ended up with probably twice as much icing as I could fit on the cake, I will cut the icing recipe in half next time.

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Mar 24, 2012

This was the ugliest cake I've ever made--it fell apart when I took it out of the pans and crumbled like crazy! I used a lot of icing as glue to piece it together; it really looked a mess. The TASTE, however, is quite another matter. It was delicious! I LOVED the icing (best chocolate icing EVER and I will use it ever after) and the cake is really rich and chocolatey. I would try it again and hope for better results next time as far as the appearance, but my family has really enjoyed eating it!

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Mar 19, 2012

The cake was very tasty, although very dense. The following day it had the consistency of very dense brownies rather than cake. But it was very yummy!

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Mar 17, 2012

I used this frosting with a different cake because I didn't have creme fraiche or superfine sugar. best frosting I have ever made!

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Nutrition

  • Calories
  • 913 kcal
  • 46%
  • Carbohydrates
  • 112.4 g
  • 36%
  • Cholesterol
  • 158 mg
  • 53%
  • Fat
  • 49.8 g
  • 77%
  • Fiber
  • 3.4 g
  • 13%
  • Protein
  • 8.1 g
  • 16%
  • Sodium
  • 186 mg
  • 7%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

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