Food

For the Greatest St. Patrick’s Day, You Can Drink Your Guinness and Eat It Too (As Cake!)

March 7, 2025
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Why It Works

  • Incorporating Guinness Additional Stout Beer into each the cake batter and the syrup produces a bittersweet and deeply flavored dessert.
  • Brushing the cake with a Guinness syrup retains the cake moist and amplifies the stout taste within the dessert.
  • Malted milk powder brings savory depth to the vanilla frosting.

There are various iterations of chocolate cake, and I like each considered one of them. You might hand me a flourless chocolate cake, a chocolate mug cake, or a no-bake cheesecake, and I’d be thrilled to dig into each considered one of them. There’s one, nonetheless, that I don’t get to get pleasure from fairly often: Guinness-chocolate cake. I nearly by no means consider making it except St. Patrick’s Day is across the nook, and I don’t come throughout it often in bakeries or eating places. The cake is extremely moist and wealthy, with a deep chocolate taste that’s complemented by the beer’s malty, tangy undertones.

The stout-infused chocolate cake recipe under comes from my Birmingham, Alabama-based check kitchen colleague Jasmine Smith. Her sheet cake is balanced, with loads of taste from each the chocolate and beer, and a malted vanilla frosting provides simply sufficient sweetness—plus the creamy frosting visually evokes the thick, creamy head on a correctly poured stout. Right here’s the best way to make it.

4 Suggestions for Making a Scrumptious Guinness-Chocolate Sheet Cake

Use Guinness Additional Stout, if potential. Guinness sells a number of sorts of beers; their additional stout, which is offered in bottles within the US, has a clean, creamy end with toasty espresso notes that complement the chocolate within the cake. Right here, we use bottled Guinness Additional Stout, which has much less water, extra concentrated roasted barley taste, and residual sugar than the Guinness Draft Stout offered in cans. In case you can’t discover any Guinness Additional Stout, Dragon Stout or Left Hand Brewery Milk Stout each have the same taste profile and could be good substitutes.

Heat up your beer. Some chocolate cake recipes, like satan’s meals cake, name for stirring cocoa powder and chocolate into sizzling water or espresso. Right here, we use beer that’s simply been dropped at a simmer, which helps dissolve the cocoa powder. 

Brush the cake with a Guinness syrup. To maintain the cake moist, make a easy syrup by whisking Guinness, sugar, and prompt espresso powder collectively in a saucepan over warmth on the stovetop, then brush the cake with it. This not solely helps the cake keep softer for longer, but additionally provides the cake extra stout taste (many of the alcohol will cook dinner off).

High it with a malted vanilla frosting. Cream cheese helps stabilize the frosting and provides it its wealthy, creamy texture. Incorporating malted milk powder provides it a scrumptious nuttiness and savory depth; the ingredient is constituted of barley that’s been malted—the method of soaking, germinating, and drying grains—which provides it a definite earthiness. Malted grains are sometimes used to brew beer, and since a lot of Guinness’ taste comes from malted barley, the frosting pairs splendidly with the cake and enhances the bittersweet flavors of the hops and chocolate. In case you love malted milk powder as a lot as I do, then you definitely’ll most likely wish to eat the frosting all by itself. Simply bear in mind to go away some for the cake.

This recipe was developed by Jasmine Smith; the headnote was written by Genevieve Yam.

For the Greatest St. Patrick’s Day, You Can Drink Your Guinness and Eat It Too (As Cake!)



Cook dinner Mode
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For the Cake:

  • Unsalted butter, for greasing the pan

  • 1 cup (240 ml) Guinness Additional Stout Beer (see notes)

  • 2 1/4 ounces unsweetened pure cocoa powder (65 g; 3/4 cup), plus extra for pan

  • 7 3/4 ounces all-purpose flour (224 g; 1 3/4 cups)

  • 10 1/2 ounces granulated sugar (300 g; 1 1/2 cups)

  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

  • 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt; for desk salt, use half as a lot by quantity

  • 2 massive eggs

  • 1 cup (240 ml) complete milk

  • 1/2 cup (120 ml) vegetable oil

  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the Guinness Syrup:

  • 1 cup (240 ml) Guinness Additional Stout Beer

  • 3 1/2 ounces granulated sugar (100 g; 1/2 cup)

  • 1/2 teaspoon prompt espresso powder

For the Malted Vanilla Frosting:

  • 4 ounces (113 g) cream cheese, softened

  • 5 1/4 ounces granulated sugar (150 g; 3/4 cup)

  • 3/4 ounces malted milk powder (22 g; 2 tablespoons)

  • 2 1/2 cups (591 ml) heavy cream

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  • 1/2 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt; for desk salt, use half as a lot by quantity

  1. For the Cake: Regulate oven rack to center place and preheat to 350°F (175°C). Grease a 10- by 15-inch rimmed baking sheet or 9- by 13-inch baking pan with butter and mud with cocoa powder, shaking out extra. (See notes.)

    Severe Eats / Hannah Huffman


  2. In a small saucepan, deliver beer to a simmer over medium warmth; take away from warmth and put aside. In the meantime, in a big bowl, whisk flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt collectively to mix.

    Severe Eats / Hannah Huffman


  3. Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla to flour combination; whisk till nicely mixed and no streaks stay. Steadily pour warmed beer into batter and whisk to mix. (Batter can be skinny.) Pour batter into ready pan.

    Severe Eats / Hannah Huffman


  4. Bake till a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clear and cake springs again when gently touched, 25 to half-hour. Take away from oven and funky utterly in pan on a wire rack, about 1 hour.

    Severe Eats / Hannah Huffman


  5. Whereas the cake cools, put together the Guinness Syrup: In a small saucepan, whisk beer, sugar, and espresso granules to mix. Carry to a simmer over medium warmth; cook dinner, stirring usually, till sugar is dissolved, about 2 minutes. Take away from warmth.

    Severe Eats / Hannah Huffman


  6. Utilizing a fork, poke the cooled cake throughout. Utilizing a pastry brush, brush cake with syrup till all of the liquid is absorbed. (It might seem like lots of liquid, however the cake will soak all of it up.)

    Severe Eats / Hannah Huffman


  7. For the Malted Vanilla Frosting: Within the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat cream cheese, sugar, malted milk powder, vanilla, and salt on medium velocity till clean, utilizing a versatile spatula to scrape down bowl and beater as wanted, about 1 minute. Improve the velocity to excessive, then steadily add heavy cream till combination is clean and medium-stiff peaks kind, 5 to six minutes. (Alternatively, frosting will be ready in a big bowl with an electrical hand mixer.)

    Severe Eats / Hannah Huffman


  8. Utilizing a versatile spatula or offset spatula, unfold frosting over cooled cake. Refrigerate till chilled and set, about 1 hour.

    Severe Eats / Hannah Huffman


Particular Gear

10- by 15-inch rimmed baking sheet, small saucepan, whisk, toothpick or cake tester, pastry brush, stand mixer or electrical hand mixer, versatile spatula or offset spatula 

Notes

Make sure to use bottled Guinness Additional Stout Beer, which has much less water, extra concentrated roasted barley taste, and residual sugar than the Guinness Draft Stout offered in cans. In case you can’t discover any Guinness Additional Stout, Dragon Stout or Left Hand Brewery Milk Stout each have the same taste profile and could be good substitutes.

If utilizing a 9- by 13-inch baking pan, you’ll have to extend baking time by 3 to five minutes. 

Darkish brown sugar will be substituted for granulated sugar in each the cake and syrup, which is able to give the dessert deeper caramel notes.

Make-Forward and Storage

The cake will be baked as much as 1 day prematurely;as soon as cooled, wrap cake in plastic and retailer at room temperature. The syrup will be made as much as 3 days prematurely and refrigerated in an hermetic container. The frosting will be made as much as 3 days prematurely and refrigerated in an hermetic container; re-whip within the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or in a big bowl utilizing an electrical mixer earlier than spreading over cake.

The frosted cake will be loosely lined with plastic wrap and refrigerated for two to three days.

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