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.
Apparently Guinness isn’t (generally) vegan but there is a vegan option; 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. I was able to find it in my local supermarket but you can also purchase it online or use another vegan-friendly stout.
Vegan Guinness Chocolate Cake with "Baileys" Buttercream Frosting
A seriously indulgent and boozy vegan cake, great for birthdays or St Patrick's day celebration
Ingredients
For the Chocolate Guinness cake (adapted from Fat Girl Trapped in a Skinny Body)
- 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
- 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.
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!
Do you have recommended cooking adjustments for a 9×13 in pan? Thanks! Excited to try.
Hi Megan. I’m afraid I don’t have that information but I just found this: https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/cake-pan-sizes/ and it looks like a 13×9 inch pan is equal to 2 x 8×8 inch pans + 1/3 of the mixture. So you could just make one layer using that pan but you might have a little bit of the mixture left over. This is just based on my rough estimates using this guide. Hope it helps.
Absolutely delicious. Came out perfectly (some of the comments had me worried, but this couldn’t have been easier or tastier).
I did halve the castor sugar in recipe, and halved the icing quantities (and then only ended up using 1 cup or so of icing sugar), as not big on sweetness. We still had icing left over!
This will definitely be on go to list for quick desserts.
Also, I have a fan oven so cooked at 150°C.
Hi Ash, so glad it turned out well and you enjoyed it! Thanks for the comment.
How much does this cake rise? I only have one 8 in pan so I’m wondering if I should bake a portion at a time or will I be able to put it all in at once? What will be the safer outcome?
Definitely don’t pour all the batter into 1 x 8 inch pan as it won’t cook through properly and will likely spill over. If you only have one, then I would suggest doing it one at a time.
Made this cake for my boyfriend’s birthday and it was truly delicious. However, I did have to make it twice as when I followed the recipe for the buttercream frosting, it was too runny and when applied to the cake it wasn’t pipable and made the whole cake collapse. I made it a second time with about 170g of butter (I used vitalite) and 800g of icing sugar and instead of brewed coffee I used half a tsp of espresso powder. I was also able to add a splash more whiskey with those quantities and could pipe the icing nicely onto the cake.
Oh no! I’m sorry that happened. Thank you for the notes. I will adjust the recipe to mention that it really helps to make sure both the cake and the frosting are as cool as possible. I usually freeze the cake layers and keep the buttercream in the fridge overnight as it helps keep everything in place when decorating. But really glad it all worked out the second time around and that you enjoyed the taste!
This has become one of my staples, I’ve made it about 4 times. It’s perfect, thanks so much!
So glad you like it!
This recipe was genuinely bad. The cake itself is too boozy and bitter, and the icing too runny. Waste of time and money.
Made this for a friend for a Christmas prezzie, added one egg replacer and put it in cupcake tins instead of cake tins and it worked perfectly! Hopefully he enjoys!
Very good recipe, although the first time I made it, it was very crumbly. I added a flax seed egg the second time to help bind it and it worked a lot better.
Glad that worked for you, Angela! Flax is a great binder.
I love this cake. Though I substituted for sugar. Used 1/2 honey, 1/2 damerara sugar and 1/8 granulated sugar. It turned out a bit bitter sweet that I like and it is egg free. That I like more
Guinness on draft has been fish bladder free since 2016 and as of January 2018, ALL Guinness in cans/bottles is as well.
Will be hanging with my vegan sister on St.Patty’s Day. I think I’ll try this a single “poke cake” with the Irish Cream recipe from Oh She Glows.
What is caster sugar, btw?
Thanks for confirming, Ann! Caster sugar is a slightly finer sugar than the granulated sugar we have in the UK. Apparently in the US, the baking sugar is naturally finer so just use ordinary sugar. Hope that helps :)
Most amazing cake and so easy! All my friends who tried it were amazed with how lovely it was!!
So happy to hear that, Victoria!!
Hi
I’m planning on making a larger and taller version of this for my friends birthday… Not having baked a Vegan Cake before do you think this cake has the stability to take 3 layers and also can the icing be piped? Many thanks in advance…
I would say 3 layers would be fine! I made a small 3 layer cake for my dad’s birthday once but it was only 8inch tin. I can’t imagine it being a problem for a larger one though. The icing can be piped, yes. Be sure to make sure the cake is nice and cool/chilled before frosting. Your friend will be very happy with the outcome I’m sure! Let me know how it goes
Thank you for this recipe! This is one of the tastiest cakes I’ve had, and the birthday girl it was made for was very pleased. I did 1.5 cups stout, .5 cups strong coffee, and did a peanut butter frosting.
I made this cake last night and it turned out very good. You can taste the Guinness and it is very moist. Thanks for sharing this.
I have never heard cake pans being called sandwich tins before. I assume you meann regular 8inch round pans??
Loved the flavor of this cake and the frosting! I must have done something wrong, though, because my cake came out dry and crumbly. It even broke on half when I turned it out onto the cooling rack. Frosting saves everything, though, so I made a little extra and glued it together that way!
Guinness is not vegan http://www.barnivore.com/beer/26/guinness
As she mentioned in her article, there is NOW a vegan option for Guinness.
I baked this cake today and its so delicious! Could I blog it in my blog?
Of course I will link to your blog.
Have a nice day,
Tatjana
Thank you very much for this recipe. I have just made it ready for the weekend. I am sure that my menfolk will really enjoy this, as will I!
probably none left to freeze for PP
Hi Amee,
this cake is to die for, I’ve made it many times now and it’s has become our favourite chocolate so far. so thank you very much for sharing this yummy recipe!
Would you know if I could replace the plain flour with splelt flour??
Thanks!!!!
Hi Esther, thank you so much for your comment! Glad to hear you enjoy it as much as I do :-) I have started using spelt in place of plain flour a lot now but find you may need a bit more of the spelt flour in certain recipes. Perhaps an extra 2-4 tbsp in this one? Let me know how you get on!
This looks lovely – am going to try to make it tonight as a friend has requested this combo… (will be using a chocolate stout, not Guinness). Is it baking powder or soda? The ingredient list says powder, but instructions say soda. Thanks!
Hi Kate, thanks for pointing that out – just changing it now! It should be baking soda. Hope your friend enjoys it, please let me know how it turns out :-)
Thanks, huge hit– dark, delicious, and boozy. Thank you! I put a photo on my instagram: https://instagram.com/dearmisskate
So glad it was enjoyed! Thanks for letting me know, looks beautiful :-)
What a great cake for your dad! He must have been very happy. Hope you’re having a great holiday season.
Hi Aimee, I thought I’d stopped by your blog before, but it was Ala (WallFLOUR Girl)’s site instead. And yay for discovering another UK baker. :)
Absolutely love your Guiness cake. It looks amazing, and love the pairing of the Irish ‘Baileys’ Cream frosting too. I think I’d run to the corner and I’d snaffle this cake alone.
Looks beautifully dark and delicious Aimee. Shame I can’t eat Guinness!!
Happy happy birthday to your dad, Aimee! This cake looks amazing and is the perfect celebration cake! The guinness just makes this so much more special – love it!
Man I wish I could eat this!! Looks amazing x
Yum, I’d just love a big bowl of that icing.
What a yummy unique idea I wouldn’t have ever thought to make this! xx
So yummy! My dad is Irish and loves his Guinness and Jamesons… so it just had to be done :-)
It’s been way too long since I’ve whipped up something boozy in the kitchen, Aimee. This looks so perfect–vegan cakes are so incredibly moist and wonderful, too! Happy Monday!
Gotta get boozy in the kitchen this Christmas, Ala… ;-)
You’ve done it again, I’ve fell completely in love with this cake. I don’t follow a vegan diet but I don’t think I’d even unvegan it because it looks perfect.
Aw, thank you Laura :-) I didn’t mention to anyone it was vegan and no one could tell otherwise!
Hate to break it to you, but Guiness is not vegan. Isinglas, also known as fish bladder, is used in the brewing process.
Hi Megan, I cover this in my post (read 3rd paragraph) and use a vegan-friendly Guinness called Foreign Extra Stout :-)