High Altitude Chocolate Guinness Cake
A very moist chocolate cake made with Guinness and black cocoa powder, frosted with Baileys Irish cream buttercream.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- 6-inch Round Cake Pans (x2)
- Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 can or bottle Guinness (12-14 oz)
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ¾ cup + 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- ¼ cup unsweetened Dutch processed cocoa powder
- 2 tbsp black cocoa powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
Buttercream
- 1 ½ cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tsp meringue powder, optional
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 3 tbsp Baileys Irish cream liqueur
Instructions
Cake
- Pour the Guinness into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, then steadily simmer the Guinness over medium heat until it's reduced to 3/4 cup. This may take 20-30 minutes, depending on how fast the Guinness is boiling.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Lightly spray the bottoms of two 6-inch cake pans with non-stick baking spray.
- In a bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powders, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- Separately, whisk together the oil, sour cream, vanilla and eggs. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and pour in the hot Guinness. Whisk just until smooth.
- Divide the batter between the pans, and bake for about 28-30 minutes, until the tops spring back when gently touched, and a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the cake comes out clean.
- Set the pans on a cooling rack and cool the cakes completely before frosting.
Buttercream
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter for one minute until smooth. With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar by spoonfuls, the meringue powder and salt, mixing until combined. Add the Baileys.
- Increase the speed to medium and whip the buttercream for 4-5 minutes, scraping the bowl down several times, until very light and fluffy. Turn the speed down to "stir" and mix for 1 more minute.
- If the cakes have a domed top, use a sharp, non-serrated knife to slice off a small portion of cake to level the cake layers.
- For the naked cake pictured, place one of the layers of cake on a serving plate or cake pedestal, and frost with a thick layer of buttercream. Repeat with the second layer of cake, then lightly scrape the buttercream around the sides to leave the sides of the cake mostly bare. You'll likely have some buttercream leftover, so if you double the cake recipe for a larger cake, you don't need to double the buttercream, too.
- If frosting the cake all over, layer the cakes with a thinner layer of buttercream in between, frost the cake all over with a thin crumb coat of buttercream, chill the cake for 30 minutes, then frost the cake with a final smooth coat of buttercream.
Notes
Store leftover cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
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