Stacked Guinness Chocolate Cake With Irish Cream Buttercream & Irish Cream & Snickers Drip
St Patricks cake has to be a Guinness cake, and if thats not enough to shout St Patrick, I’ve added Irish Cream to the buttercream and to the snickers topping.
It’s decedent, moreish, moist and a cake I know I’ll keep in my own recipe books to use again and again.
The sour cream helps to keep the cake super moist and because there’s no butter in the cake, oil used instead, the oil helps to keep the cake light in texture too.
When the batter is ready for the oven, it’s runny, so don't panic when everything is mixed together, and when mixing, do the mixing by hand using a spatular or large metal spoon. Over mixing the batter runs the risk of ending up with a tough tasting cake.
How long the cakes take to bake will depend on your oven and if you use two deep tins or four slim tins. Obviously the thick tins have more batter in them so will take longer to bake, but just be mindful of the baking time and try not to over bake them. Each oven is different.
Apart from these tips, there’s not much else to say about the cake, except, it’s bloody delicious.
Go on, give it a go and enjoy your sweet life!
Guinness Chocolate Cake With Irish Cream Buttercream & Irish Cream & Snickers Drip
What you need
Guinness Chocolate Cake
400g Castor Sugar
240ml Guinness
225g Plain Flour Plus extra for tin preparation
170g Soured Cream
120ml Vegetable Oil
70g Cocoa Powder - See Tip Box
3 Large Eggs
2tsp Baking Soda
1tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
Margarine for tin preparation
Dry ingredients on the left and wet ingredients on the right.
Irish Cream Buttercream
750g Icing Sugar
450g Butter - Softened
62ml Irish - Cream - See Tip Box
Creamed butter, add the irish cream and the icing sugar
Snickers & Irish Cream Chocolate Drip
5 Snickers Bars - See Tip Box
2 tbsp Irish Cream - See Tip Box
How It’s Done
Heat the oven to 180c
Find four 8 inch thin cake tins or use 2 deer 8 inch cake tins.
Rub margarine around the inside of each tin making sure that gets into the edges.
Put a little flour into the tin and move the tin around so that all of the inside of the tin has a thin coat of flour - make sure to tap out the excess.
Draw around the bottoms of one of the tins until four circles are drawn on non-stick baking parchment.
Cut out the circles and lay them in the floured tins.
Set them aside until needed.
Place all the dry ingredients into a bowl - Flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, - use a hand whisk to mix everything together - set it aside
In a separate bowl, add all the wet ingredients - sour cream, vegetable oil, vanilla, eggs and Guinness - use a whisk to mix everything together.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and use a large metal spoon or spatular to fold it all together - Don’t over mix.
The mixture will be pourable.
Divide the batter between the prepared tins and place them into the hot oven.
Divide the batter between the cake tins
Bake in the centre of the oven for 15-20 minutes, or when a finger is gently touched to the top off the cake it bounces back. - See Tip Box
Once baked, set them aside and let them cool completely in the tin.
While the cakes are cooling, make the Irish Cream Buttercream
Irish Cream Buttercream
Place the softened butter into the bowl of an electric mixer and let the mixer run until the butter become light in colour - Scraping the sides of bowl down a few times - be patient.
Add all of the icing sugar into the butter and add half of the Irish cream.
On a medium speed, beat until everything is combined.
At this stage, check to see what the texture of the buttercream is like.
If it’s too hard, add more of the Irish cream, one tablespoon at a time, beating all the time until the buttercream is soft and spreadable - See Tip Box
Snickers & Irish Cream Chocolate Drip
Cut the snickers into small chunks and place them into a microwavable bowl.
Add the two tablespoons of Irish cream in with the snickers.
Put the bowl into the microwave and heat on high, for 30 seconds.
Remove from the microwave and give it a good stir.
Return the bowl to the microwave for another 30 seconds, then remove and stir again.
The snickers should now be melted and once stirred, it should be thick and sticky.
Let it cool for a few minutes just so it doesn’t melt the buttercream when applied to the top of the cake.
Assembly
Once the cakes are completely cold place them in the freezer for 20 min while you make the buttercream - See Tip Box
Once ready to use them, remove them the tins remembering to remove the baking parchment from the bottom of each.
Find a serving plate, and add a small dollop of buttercream to the centre of the plate. - to stop the first cake from slipping around.
Place one of the cakes onto the buttercream and give it a very gentle push so the cake won’t move around whilst decorating it.
Divide the buttercream into four, and put 1/4 of the buttercream on top of the first cake.
Use an off set spatular to smooth it over the top of the cake - it doesn’t matter if some of the buttercream goes over the edge of the cake.
Place the next layer on top and repeat with the buttercream.
Place the third cake in top and repeat.
Finish by placing the fourth cake on top of the buttercream.
Place the last of the buttercream on top of the last cake, and using an off set spatular, to smooth it all over the top of the cake, scraping off the excess .
Using the spatular, dot any excess buttercream around the sides of the cake, and start to work it around the whole cake, scraping it off and putting it back on until all the buttercream is used - See the photo.
Smooth all the excess buttercream over the outside of the cake.
Dollop the cooled snicker drip on the top of the cake, and using a spatular, gently work the topping so that it is flat on the top and bits off it over spill the edges.
Dollop the topping on and push it over the edges.
Store in a cool place and serve at room temperature.
To cut the cake a little easier, dip the sharp knife in hot water, then wipe until dry before cutting the slices.
One slice or three!?
Tip Box
Cocoa powder - Don’t substitute drinking chocolate for the cocoa. Drinking chocolate has lots of sugar mixed in and wont Gove a chocolate taste.
Snickers - I used snickers for the topping because thats what I had, but other things work really well too. Substitute Mars instead of snickers bars or use just plain chocolate and add Irish cream to the chocolate.
Irish Cream - Irish cream or the brand name Baileys, I’ve used both of these in past recipes. But I do know that some out there wont want to use alcohol. If that’s you, use double cream instead in the buttercream and the topping.
Baking time - The baking time depends on how deep the cake tins are and how your oven cooks. All ovens vary, so adjust the cooking time accordingly.
The cake should bounce back gently and straight away when pressed very gently with a finger tip.
Buttercream - Te buttercream should be thick but spreadable. When all of the Irish cream had been added, and if it is still too thick, add more Irish cream one table spoon at time before mixing more in.
Freeze the cakes - This is a great tip for butterecreaming the outside of a cake without getting lots of cake crumbs mixed in to the buttercream. Once the cakes are cold, and still in the tin, place then into the freezer for 20-30 minutes before its time to assemble them.
