St. Patrick’s Day Chocolate Guinness Cake

Nigella Lawson’s Chocolate Guinness Cake is easy to make and delicious. 

St. Patrick’s Day sneaks up on me every year, and I always wish I would have been more prepared so that I could plan something small to celebrate. I’m not talking major, just a green sweater, or a cute card, or maybe a green dinner. If you’re like me, I’m here to help you out today.

If you’re reading this morning, you can have a Chocolate Guinness Cake ready this afternoon as an after-school or after-work treat, or as dessert. It’s super easy, and just as delicious. And it uses Guinness (which, oddly, you can’t actually taste), so that makes it Irish!

The Chocolate Guinness Cake comes from the English – not Irish – cookbook author and tv chef Nigella Lawson. But anything I’ve ever made from Nigella has been both easy and fabulous, and this cake veers not from that formula. Besides, if ever I were to have a tv (also girl) crush, it would have to be this incredible cook-slash-seductive writer. 

That’s all lucky for us, because Nigella Lawson’s Chocolate Guinness Cake could be not only your new favorite – easy – St. Patrick’s Day dessert, but also your new favorite chocolate cake, period. Extra period. 

Let’s celebrate something small today – we all need it. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

St. Patrick’s Day Chocolate Guinness Cake
Very slightly adapted from Nigella Lawson and NYT Cooking

1 cup Guinness stout
10 tablespoons (1 stick plus 2 tablespoons) unsalted butter
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups sugar 
¾ cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking soda 
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups confectioners’ sugar
8 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
½ cup heavy cream

For the cake: Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. In a large saucepan, combine the Guinness and butter, and cook over medium-low heat until the butter melts. Remove from the heat, add the cocoa and sugar, and whisk to blend. Let cool slightly.

In a small bowl, combine the sour cream, eggs, and vanilla, and mix well. Add to the Guinness mixture. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt, and whisk again until you have a smooth batter. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake until the cake has risen and is firm, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Place on a rack and cool the cake completely in the pan.

For the frosting: Use a stand mixer with the whisk attachment or a food processor to mix the cream cheese with the confectioners’ sugar, and mix until smooth. Add the heavy cream, and mix until the frosting is smooth and spreadable, about 3 minutes. 

Remove the cake from the pan and place it on a platter. Ice the top of the cake only, so that it resembles a frothy pint of Guinness.