Guinness Chocolate Cake is a super moist dark chocolate cake with a deep rich flavor thanks to Guinness stout and espresso in the batter. A fluffy cream cheese frosting on top finishes this heavenly cake!
Nigella Lawson’s Guinness Chocolate Cake
This Guinness Chocolate Cake from celebrity chef Nigella Lawson’s cookbook, Feast, is a dessert classic with an almost cult following. It has more than twelve thousand five-star reviews on the New York Times Cooking website – and I can totally understand why.
This cake is dense, moist, and super chocolatey with a deep flavor thanks to the Guinness stout, cocoa powder, and espresso powder in the batter. The cake is not overly sweet, and the fluffy cream cheese frosting swirled on top of the cake is a perfect complement to the rich chocolate cake.
Better yet, this cake is easy to make! The cake batter is combined in a large saucepan on the stove, then poured into a spring-form pan to bake. Once cooled, you’ll top it with a cream cheese frosting that is whipped until light and fluffy.
Nigella Lawson compares the appearance of the white fluffy frosting on top of the dark chocolate cake as similar to the appearance of a poured glass of Guinness with its thick creamy head (or foam) on top!
Key Ingredients & Substitutions
- Guinness – This is a popular Irish stout or dark beer with a deep, rich, almost coffee-like flavor.
- Unsalted Butter
- Cocoa Powder –We recommend using a quality, Dutch-processed cocoa powder such as Rodelle. The Dutch process removes acidity from the chocolate resulting in a darker color, smoother flavor, and even better mixing and rising of baked goods.
- Caster Sugar – This is a super fine granulated sugar used in many dessert recipes. You can find it at some supermarkets or online here, but you can also process regular granulated sugar in a food processor for a couple of minutes to make your own caster sugar at home!
- Sour Cream – Use full fat sour cream.
- Eggs
- Vanilla Extract
- All-Purpose Flour
- Baking Soda
- Instant Espresso Powder – This is listed as an optional ingredient in Nigella’s original recipe, but we highly recommend it for the best and deepest flavor. We always have a jar of King Arthur-brand Espresso Powder on hand and use it in many of our recipes like this Black Bottom Pie.
- For the Frosting – Cream cheese, confectioner’s sugar, vanilla extract, and heavy cream.
Tips & Tricks
- Note that we have written this recipe for a US-based readership using empirical measurements. If you’d like to follow a recipe written in metric measurements, feel free to follow Nigella’s original recipe here.
- When baking your cake, we suggest wrapping a wet “bake even” cake strip like this around the spring-form pan for the most even baking. Without it, this cake tends to rise in the middle during baking, then sink in the middle when cooled.
Guinness Chocolate Cake
Guinness Chocolate Cake is a super moist dark chocolate cake with a deep rich flavor and a fluffy cream cheese frosting on top.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 8 slices 1x
- Category: Cake, Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Irish
Ingredients
To prepare the cake
Non-stick cooking spray or vegetable shortening, to prepare the pan
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
2/3 cup full-fat sour cream
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup Guinness stout
1 cup (2 sticks) of unsalted butter plus two tablespoons
2 cups caster/super fine sugar (or process granulated sugar in a food processor for a couple of minutes to make your own super fine sugar)
3/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
For the Frosting
8 ounces cream cheese
1 1/4 cups confectioner’s sugar, plus more as needed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Spray or grease a 9-inch springform pan and line with a round paper liner. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, and espresso powder through a fine mesh strainer. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together sour cream, eggs, and vanilla. Set aside
- In a large saucepan, combine Guinness and butter. Heat over low heat, stirring occasionally, until butter is fully melted. Add sugar and cocoa powder and stir to combine. Remove from heat.
- Whisk a few spoonfuls of the hot Guiness mixture into the bowl with the sour cream and egg mixture. (This will temper or warm the sour cream/egg mixture so the eggs won’t cook when you add it to the hot Guinness mixture in the next step.)
- Pour the tempered sour cream/egg mixture into the saucepan with the Guiness mixture. Whisk to fully combine.
- Whisk the dry flour mixture into the saucepan of wet ingredients. Mix to fully combine into a smooth batter with no pockets of flour remaining. Avoid overmixing.
- Pour the cake batter into the prepared cake pan. (If using a cake strip, wet and wrap one strip around the pan. If your springform pan tends to leak, loosely wrap a piece of foil around the bottom of the pan too.
- Bake for 45 minutes or until the center of the cake is set. Insert a toothpick in the center of the cake. It’s done when the toothpick comes out clean. (Avoid overbaking!)
- Cool the cake on a wire rack.
- To make the frosting, whip the cream cheese with a mixer until smooth. Sift half of the confectioner’s sugar into the mixing bowl and mix until smooth. Add remaining confectioner’s sugar and mix again until smooth. Add vanilla and heavy cream and mix once again until smooth. Add more confectioner’s sugar if needed, a tablespoon at a time, until you reach a light, smooth and spreadable consistency. (We added approximately two tablespoons extra.)
- Run a sharp knife around the edge of the cake before loosening the springform pan clasp. Carefully remove the cake from the pan and peel off the paper liner, then place on a cake serving plate or platter.
- Spoon the frosting over the top of the cake. Spread with an offset spatula or the back of a large spoon creating peaks and swirls.
Notes
Recipe adapted from Nigella.com.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Can I make Guiness Chocolate Cake ahead of time? This cake is best freshly made and served within the first day or so. You can make the cake ahead of time but freeze it without the frosting. Then thaw and frost before serving.
- How do I store leftovers? Cover and keep refrigerated for up to three days. However, allow the cake to come back to room temperature before serving.
- Can I freeze? As noted above, the unfrosted cake can be frozen. Be sure to cool completely after baking and wrap it tightly to avoid any freezer burn.
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