It’s my Dad’s birthday and this is his birthday cake! I’ve been planning it for a while and I’m so pleased with how delicious it turned out.
It’s an intense chocolate-y and stout-y cake with an amazing “Baileys” buttercream frosting.
The frosting was inspired by my vegan Irish Cream Ice Cream which uses Irish whiskey, a little bit of cocoa powder and a little bit of coffee to recreate the flavour of Baileys.
You wouldn’t know the difference! And the cake itself is slightly adapted from a recipe I found over at Fat Girl Trapped in a Skinny Body.
At the time of creating this recipe, the only vegan Guinness option was Foreign Extra Guinness.
It’s a lot stronger and more bitter but I think it works better in this cake as the flavour comes through a lot more.
However, I’m very very pleased to say that all forms of Guinness is now vegan-friendly.
More vegan Guinness and “Baileys” recipes:
Guinness Triple Chocolate Vegan Brownies
If you enjoyed this recipe, let me know in the comments, leave a rating and tag #WallflowerKitchen on instagram so I can share your creations in my stories!
Vegan Guinness Chocolate Cake with "Baileys" Buttercream
A seriously indulgent and boozy vegan cake, great for birthdays or St Patrick's day celebration
Ingredients
For the Chocolate Guinness cake
- 250 g / 2 cups plain flour
- 120 g / 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 220 g / 1 cup caster sugar
- 100 g / 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 480 ml / 2 cups Foreign Extra Guinness, this is apparently the only vegan Guinness
- 120 ml / 1/2 cup vegetable oil, I used mild olive oil
- 2 tsp white vinegar or apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
For the "Baileys" buttercream frosting
- 250 g / 1 cup vegan butter, I used 'Pure' sunflower butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 600 g / 5 cups icing sugar
- 2-3 tbsp Irish Whiskey, I used Jamesons
- 1/2 tsp cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp very strongly brewed coffee
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 170c / 350f. Grease and line two 8 inch sandwich tins.
- In a bowl sift the flour, baking soda, cocoa powder, salt and sugars. Make a well in the centre, pour in the beer, oil and vanilla. Whisk until there are no lumps.
- Pour into the prepared tins and bake for 25-30 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Once baked, let them cool for 15-20 minutes in their tins before transferring them onto a cooling rack.
- To make the buttercream, cream the vegan butter and vanilla extract together in a stand mixer. Add the icing sugar in a large tbsp at a time until well mixed.
- Beat in the whiskey, cocoa powder and brewed coffee. Taste and adjust quantities if needed until it tastes just like Baileys! Refrigerate for at least an hour before decorating, to make it easier to spread.
- Once the cake has completely cooled (I recommend freezing it or keeping in the fridge overnight before decorating) spread the chilled frosting on top of one layer, sandwich the two layers together and then top the cake with the rest of the frosting.
- Serve and enjoy! It will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days, covered.
Notes
The cake is adapted from Fat Girl Trapped in a Skinny Body
I was looking for a vegan chocolate stout cake and came across this recipe. It’s very similar to a cake recipe (without the beer) that my Aunt used to make – she called it wacky cake.
I made this recipe for a 4 layer wedding cake – I had to double the recipe so I used 22 Guiness and the rest of the liquid I used cashew milk. I also upped the salt slightly and add 1/2 cup of maple syrup.
This cake was AMAZING! I made a dark chocolate ganache with coconut milk, and used an espresso syrup between each layer. On the outside I put cocoa nibs, vegan cookie crumbs, and mini crunchy chocolate pearls. Cake was absolutely delicious.
Thanks so much I will definitely be making this recipe again and want to try the baileys frosting for sure.
Wow… your cake sounds incredible, especially with that espresso syrup. I am so pleased you liked this recipe – thanks for the lovely feedback!
Looked really nice, but for some reason it was very bitter. Sadly we will need to through this cake..
Hi Ernesta. Oh no! I’m sorry to hear that. It is quite a bitter cake because of the cocoa powder and stout but it should be a very delicious kind of bitter-sweet (like dark chocolate). And just like dark chocolate, it’s not necessarily for everyone but should never taste super bitter to the point where it’s inedible.
There are a few things can cause it to turn out especially bitter, including cooking at too high of a temperature or for too long, using too much baking soda, not using enough sugar or omitting the salt which really helps offset the bitterness of the cocoa powder.
This cake is INCREDIBLE. We’re making a selection of different cakes for our wedding and this is 100% going to be one.
Done exactly to recipe. We are sold!
Thanks Aimee
Yay! So pleased to hear that and honoured that it’s wedding-worthy. Thanks for the feedback, Ellie and congrats to you :-)
This cake is delicious – I reduced the sugar content and used brown sugar to adjusat to my palte and it worked really well. Thanks Aimee.
And just for your cooking awareness Guiness removed isinglass from all f their products in April 2016 and have been vegan ever since :)
Hi Oli, so pleased it turned out well. Yes, great news about Guinness a few years back. It’s my favourite tipple :-) Thanks for letting me know how the cake went and Happy St Patricks!