Chocolate Guinness Cake

Whew! This cake is a doozy! Photographing can be intense, especially when I want to show you some of the steps along the way. Then, of course, I have to process them in Photoshop, and all of a sudden, it's later than I thought!

Enough. Suffice it to say that all the effort is worth it on this cake. The Bailey's icing is delicious, and the dark chocolate drizzle just makes it over-the-top. The husband and the kid loved it!

Note: You need two cake pans for this recipe. I didn't have two, and I had to make an adjustment: By the time 30 minutes had elapsed for the first cake to bake, the leftover batter for the second layer had "deactivated", I guess you could say. Twenty minutes into the second bake, I had to insert something in the middle to make it cook so it wouldn't burn on the sides and be raw in the middle. If I had had two cake pans, it would've been easier.

Melting the butter into the beer...

CHOCOLATE GUINNESS CAKE 

1 cup Irish stout beer (such as Guinness®)
1 cup butter, cut into pieces
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
 
Bailey's Icing
3 cups confectioners' sugar, or as needed
1/2 cup butter at room temperature
3 tablespoons Irish cream liqueur (such as Baileys®), or as needed
 
Dark Chocolate Drizzle
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter at room temperature

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line 2 9-inch cake pans with parchment paper, and spray with cooking spray.
2. Pour the beer into a saucepan, add the butter, and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Remove the pan from the heat, and whisk in the cocoa powder until the mixture is smooth. Allow the mixture to cool. In a bowl, beat the eggs and sour cream together until smooth with an electric mixer, and stir in the stout mixture to make a smooth, thick liquid.

Eggs and sour cream...

      3. I a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Pour beer mixture into flour mixture; gently combine with a spatula. Pour batter into prepared pans.
      4. Bake until cakes are set and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. (About 30 minutes.) Remove and let cool in pans about 5 minutes. Invert cakes onto wire racks to finish cooling.

      5. Mix together the confectioners' sugar, butter, and Irish cream liqueur until the mixture forms a smooth and spreadable frosting (add more sugar or  liqueur as needed to create the desired consistency). Spread half the frosting on top of each cake.

     6. Place the chopped chocolate into a heatproof bowl. Bring cream to almost boiling in a small saucepan, and pour over the chocolate. Stir in the butter, and stir the mixture until the chocolate melts and the mixture is very smooth. Allow to cool until the mixture is pourable but not thin or overly runny, 10 to 15 minutes. Stack a cake gently on top of the other, frosting sides uppermost, and carefully drizzle the chocolate mixture over the cake, allowing decorative drips to run down the sides.

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My fix to the flub...

Mmmm, nom, nom, nom!