Irish Car Bomb Cake Recipe - Allrecipes.com
Irish Car Bomb Cake Recipe
  • READY IN ABOUT 2¼ hrs

Irish Car Bomb Cake

Read Reviews (22)

"This delicious and moist cake mimics the famous drop-a-shot-into-a-pint flavors: Guinness®, Baileys®, and Jameson®. The whiskey is the dominant flavor. The amount can always be reduced and substituted with water. Additionally, heavy cream can replace the Baileys in the frosting." —  

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Original recipe makes 1 2-layer 9-inch cake Change Servings
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Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 2 9-inch cake pans.
  2. Place the cake mix into a large mixing bowl. Pour the water into a 2-cup measure, and add enough Irish whiskey to total 1 1/3 cup of liquid (about 10 1/2 tablespoons). Reserve remaining whiskey. Beat the whiskey and water mixture, vegetable oil, and eggs with an electric mixer on low speed just until cake mix is moistened; increase speed to medium, and beat until the batter is smooth, about 2 minutes. Pour batter into the prepared cake pans.
  3. Bake in the preheated oven until the cakes are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cake comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.
  4. While the cake is baking, pour remaining Irish whiskey (about 1 1/2 tablespoon) into a saucepan, and stir in 1/4 cup of butter and 1/2 cup of sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly, until sugar has dissolved; boil until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes.
  5. When cakes are done baking but still hot, poke holes all over the cakes (the end of a chopstick works well for this) and drizzle the whiskey syrup into the holes. Return the cakes to the oven, and bake for an additional 5 minutes.
  6. Remove cakes from oven, allow to cool in pans for 15 minutes, then remove from pans to finish cooling on wire racks.
  7. To make caramel sauce, mix the Irish stout beer with 1/2 cup of sugar in a saucepan over low heat. Simmer the mixture until thickened, about 40 minutes, stirring occasionally, and allow to cool.
  8. To make frosting, beat 1 cup of softened butter in a bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth, then gradually beat in confectioners' sugar, about 1/2 cup at a time. Beat in salt, then add the Irish cream liqueur, beating until the frosting is light and fluffy.
  9. To assemble the cake, place a layer onto a cake serving dish; pour the Irish stout caramel over the first layer, allowing the caramel to drip down the sides of the layer. Place the 2nd cake layer on top, and top with the buttercream, swirling the frosting into decorative waves. Do not frost sides of cake.
Kitchen-Friendly View
  • PREP 30 mins
  • COOK 40 mins
  • READY IN 2 hrs 10 mins
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Reviews More Reviews

Most Helpful Positive Review
Nov 27, 2011

This cake is delicious but really time consuming. For those having trouble with the beer caramelizing, it needs a touch more sugar and it has to be cooked at a high heat. Next time I will use a little less sugar in the frosting because it was really really sweet. Everyone loved this. I was prepared to hate it and liked it too.

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Most Helpful Critical Review
Sep 13, 2011

1 1/2 Tablespoons of liquid is not enough to dissolve 1/2 cup sugar into (butter will not dissolve sugar) After following the recipe as it is posted here I ended up with a seized-up sugar-butter-whiskey mass and had to do the syrup part over with changes. My recommendation is to make the cake according to the directions on the box without adding whiskey to the water. Then make the syrup by mixing 1/2 cup whiskey and 1/2 cup sugar stirring to dissolve sugar. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium and cook 5 minutes. 1 or 2 Tablespoons butter can then be added, stir until butter melts. Gently apply the syrup over the warm cake layers with a pastry brush until all the syrup is used or poke the cakes all over with a skewer and drizzle the syrup . To me, a whole cup of butter in the frosting is excessive. 1/2 cup is plenty.

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22 Ratings

Sep 11, 2011

I had a really hard time with the stout caramel reducing to an actual working consistency, so instead I just drizzled it like the whiskey butter sauce. Also, I added a lot more baileys to my frosting, almost another half cup... It was a lot tastier! I brought them to a party and everyone thought they were to die for! Thank you

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Dec 29, 2011

This cake was the best cake I ever made! Thank you for sharing this recipe! The next time I make this cake I think I will add a thin layer of frosting to hold the two layers better.

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Dec 23, 2011

A crowd pleaser for sure- IF you can get the consistency of the frosting and caramel right. I only used 1 stick+2 tbsp of butter for the frosting and it wasn't too soft for the cake. I have not yet figured out how to make the caramel without it getting too hard.

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Oct 21, 2011

This cake was fantastic and moist. I did have some issues with the Guinness Caramel but no one seemed bothered. It instantly made it to my spouses top favorite desserts list.

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Dec 04, 2011

im a cupcake girl - has anyone attempted to convert this recipe for cupcakes? or does anyone know a good way to convert it?

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Oct 31, 2011

The Guinness-carmel never caramelized, and the Baileys frosting was so overpowering we couldn't eat the top of the cake. So disappointing, especially since it was my boyfriend's birthday cake. I even followed other reviews and tried their techniques.

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Nutrition

  • Calories
  • 631 kcal
  • 32%
  • Carbohydrates
  • 77.6 g
  • 25%
  • Cholesterol
  • 104 mg
  • 35%
  • Fat
  • 29.5 g
  • 45%
  • Fiber
  • 0 g
  • 0%
  • Protein
  • 2.9 g
  • 6%
  • Sodium
  • 530 mg
  • 21%

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

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