Chocolate Guinness Loaf Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

It’s that time of year! Time to dye the rivers emerald green in honor of Ireland’s ride or die, St. Patrick!  While I don’t need my rivers or my food tinted green, if the question is “Would you like an Irish beer?” the answer is a resounding “HECK YES!”.  I had my first Guinness worth mentioning in Ireland actual and I saw the light.  I was fortified, body and soul.

To celebrate alongside our Irish friends, I’ve poured a hearty amount of Guinness into a sturdy chocolate loaf cake and topped the dark chocolate cake with a cream cheese frosting infused with Irish cream. This is one of those, easy mid-week cakes that give you the will to fight through to another Thursday.  Fortifying, if you will.

Let’s take good care. Let’s make this Guinness chocolate cake, shall we?

Here are the ingredients you’ll need for this Chocolate Guinness Cake reccipe:

•  all-purpose flour (this recipe also works well with a gluten-free flour blend with xanthan gum!)

•  baking soda

•  kosher salt

•  unsalted butter, some melted and some at room temperature

•  brown sugar

•  large eggs

•  unsweetened cocoa powder

•  sour cream

•  Guinness beer or any other kind of dark stout you like

•  vanilla extract

•  cream cheese

•  powdered sugar

•  a splash of Irish cream, optional but delicious

We’ll start by whisking together the dry ingredients – flour, baking soda, and salt.

In a medium bowl, whisk together melted butter and Guinness beer.  Add the brown sugar and large eggs until smooth and glossy.

Whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.  Whisk in the sour cream. Get in there until no lumps remain.  The batter will be rather loose – that’s right!

Pour the batter mixture into a prepared pan. I like to line the loaf pan with parchment paper, which will make the frosted cake easy to remove after baking.  Scrape the batter bowl well, we’ll want every bit of batter in the pan.

Bake in the oven until the cake is risen and dry across the top. A toothpick inserted in the center will come out with a few moist crumbs but not wet cake batter.

While the cake bakes, make a cream cheese frosting in a large bowl.

Whip together cream cheese and softened butter followed by powdered sugar and a pinch of salt.  I like to add a splash of Irish cream for a creamy, spreadable frosting with the flavors of my favorite weekend coffee (thank you Baileys).

The goal is a smooth and spreadable consistency. You’re encouraged to taste test the frosting with a spoon. Baker’s rights.

Frost your cake one of two ways:

•  remove the cooled cake to a wire rack and spread with a thick layer of cream cheese frosting.

•  leave the cake in the loaf pan to cool and frost directly in the pan, using the pan and parchment paper to create borders for the frosting. Allow the cake to set in the fridge for an hour before lifting from the pan and slicing thick.

 

An easy and festive dessert that also makes a very fine breakfast, second breakfast, or 3pm something something.

Full disclosure, I store my cake in the pan, loosely covered, with a butterknife sticking out of the pan because this is absolutely the sort of cake I return to several times throughout the day for slivers… because I’m civilized.

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