Rich and dark Guinness chocolate loaf cake with tender and delicate crumb. This utterly delicious, extra-moist cake is topped with sweet, thick and tangy cream cheese frosting and is guaranteed to blow your socks off!
Why add Guinness to the cake?
If you never used Guinness in your cake, you are up for a very tasty treat! Firstly, do not be intimidated by a thought of stout in your bake, your cake will not taste like Guinness! Baking with stout beer adds complex depth and moisture to the cake.
As beer has natural leavening abilities, it also gives an extra lift to the cakes, resulting in really tender and delicate crumb. Rich and dark Guinness with it's toasty notes works beautifully with chocolate/ cocoa flavours in this recipe. Once you try this combination, you will fall in love with it instantly!
Tips for making Guinness chocolate cake
The recipe for this Guinness chocolate loaf cake is really easy and straight forward. In fact, it's really difficult to actually get it wrong. But here are just few simple tips to make sure your bake turns out perfect every time:
- Room temperature ingredients- Make sure that all of the ingredients are at room temperature. This goes for the cake and the cream cheese frosting ingredients.
- Don't worry if the batter looks really runny- It actually meant to be like that. It's a liquid cake batter, and that is what gives that super moist cake.
- Bake the cake soon after mixing the batter- Don't let the mixed batter sit for too long.
Cream cheese frosting
This sweet and tangy cream cheese frosting goes really well with the cake. It's thick and really creamy and spreads really well on baked goods.
It's not as sturdy as classic buttercream, so I wouldn't recommend it for piping any intricate designs. Because this type of frosting is really creamy, it makes it more difficult to pipe it, but it can be used for some simple decorations and toppings.
When making cream cheese frosting, the most important thing is to make sure you are using full-fat cream cheese. Because this is what gives that super thick and extra creamy texture. Swapping it for fat-free or reduced fat option will result in runny and watery frosting.
If cream cheese frosting is not your thing, you can also leave the cake plain, unfrosted. It will still taste delicious. Alternatively, you can use your favourite type of frosting or buttercream.
Can I make cupcakes instead of cake?
You can also use this recipe to make cupcakes, instead of a loaf cake. The batter will produce about 9 cupcakes. Make sure to reduce the baking time to 20 minutes. Cupcakes are ready, when the toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
This recipe can also be doubled to make one 23cm (9 in) diameter cake. Use the spring-form cake tin and bake it for about 45- 50 minutes, until the skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Storing instructions
Unfrosted cake can be tightly wrapped in plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 4 days. You can also freeze the unfrosted cake for up to 2 months.
Frosted cake will keep well at room temperature for up to 2- 3 days. Keep it in a cake caddy or in the airtight cake container.
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Guinness Chocolate Loaf Cake
Equipment
- baking paper
- 1 litre loaf tin (dimensions 21.6 x 11.4 x 6.35 cm)
- freestanding mixer with paddle attachment or a hand-held electric mixer
Ingredients
- 125 ml Guinness
- 125 g unsalted butter
- 40 g cocoa powder
- 180 g caster sugar
- 1 large egg
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 70 ml buttermilk room temperature
- 140 g plain flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp baking powder
For the frosting:
- 50 g unsalted butter softened and cubed
- 300 g icing sugar
- 150 g full-fat cream cheese (I used Philadelphia) room temperature
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 170 C (160 C fan). Grease and line the baking loaf tin with baking paper and set aside.
- Pour the Guinness into a medium saucepan and add the butter. Cook on medium heat until the butter has melted. Remove from the heat and stir in the cocoa powder and sugar into the warm liquid. In a small jug or mug, mix together the egg, vanilla and buttermilk, and add this to the mixture in the pan.
- Sift the flour, baking soda and baking powder into a large bowl or a bowl of a freestanding or an electric mixer. Set the speed on low and pour in the contents of the saucepan. Scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl and continue to mix until all the ingredients are incorporated, 1- 2 minutes.
- Pour the batter into the prepared baking tin and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the sponge bounces back when lightly pressed and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Set aside to cool, then remove from the baking tin to the wire rack to allow to cool completely.
For the frosting:
- Using a freestanding mixer with paddle attachment or an electric whisk, mix the butter for couple of minutes until pale and fluffy. Gradually add the icing sugar in three batches, until you have sandy mixture. Add the cream cheese and mix on low speed, then increase the speed to medium and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy.
- Once cake is completely cool, top it generously with the cream cheese frosting. You can decorate the cake with chocolate curls or dusting of cocoa powder. Enjoy!
Please note that all my recipes are developed and tested in metric grams. I recommend that you use digital scales for a more accurate results. I have provided a conversion to US customary in the recipe but please note that I haven’t tested using this method.
Nutrition
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Ella
I made this cake for St Patrick's Day this week, and I can't even begin to tell you how much we all (me and my family) LOVED IT! it disappeared in minutes, and my husband said that it was the best chocolate cake he ever had! Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Anna
Hi Ella, thanks so much, I'm over the moon to hear that your whole family enjoyed this cake!