A rich vegan chocolate cake with stout, iced with a Baileys-inspired dairy-free frosting
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
📖 Recipe
Vegan Guinness Chocolate Cake with "Baileys" Buttercream
A seriously indulgent vegan cake - Strong chocolate and stout flavour, with sweet Irish cream frosting. Great for birthdays or St Patrick's day celebrations.
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 / ½ cup light brown sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- 480 ml / 2 cups Guinness
- 120 ml / ½ cup mild-flavoured vegetable oil
- 2 tsp white vinegar or apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
For the "Baileys" buttercream frosting
- 250 g / 1 cup vegan butter, such as Naturli block
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 600 g / 5 cups icing sugar
- 2-3 tbsp Irish Whiskey, I used Jamesons
- ½ tsp cocoa powder
- ½ 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
Megan says
Do you have recommended cooking adjustments for a 9×13 in pan? Thanks! Excited to try.
Aimee says
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.
Ash says
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.
Aimee says
Hi Ash, so glad it turned out well and you enjoyed it! Thanks for the comment.
ariann says
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?
Aimee says
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.
Kate says
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.
Aimee says
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!
Mivhelle says
This has become one of my staples, I’ve made it about 4 times. It’s perfect, thanks so much!
Aimee says
So glad you like it!