St Patrick’s day is around the corner, and of course, we’ve got a cake to help you celebrate (not that this cake should only come out once a year).

Guinness, and stout generally, can divide people, but honestly, a good stout can be a joy to drink, and in fact, I’m partial to a pint myself. Plus, it’s full of iron and has fewer calories than the equivalent of fresh orange juice (yes, I checked before typing). So it’s tasty, could be considered a healthy choice - in certain situations - and is banging in a cake.

There’s quite a range of Guinness cake styles out there. For our take on it, we’re going with a tried and tested chocolate combo but also embracing its maltiness, which gives it a really rounded and moreish finish.

The below recipe will see you making a delicious cake to celebrate with this March, not that it’s only for St. Patrick’s day as this can absolutely be enjoyed year-round. And while we’ve given you the recipes for all the decoration on top too, a lusciously malty Swiss meringue buttercream, a chocolate ganache, and a use for any extra crumbs, you can, of course, add your own decorations too, e.g., fondant four-leaf clovers or green leprechaun top hats.

If, however, the process seems daunting, we’d be delighted to make one for you - head over here for our Guinness Cake to buy!

Guinness Chocolate Malt Cake Recipe

For the Guinness Chocolate Malt Sponge Layers

Ingredients

• 250g plain flour
• 200g caster sugar
• 200g light brown sugar
• 75g cocoa powder
• 100g malted milk drink powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 250ml Guinness or any dark stout
• 100ml vegetable oil
• 250ml yoghurt
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius and prepare three 6-inch round baking tins by lightly greasing them and sprinkling flour over them.
2. Sift the dry ingredients together into a large mixing bowl. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk up the eggs, yoghurt, oil, and vanilla.
3. In a small saucepan, heat the Guinness until just simmering. Then pour into the eggy mix, whisking continuously till well combined. Pour it all into the dry ingredients and whisk into an evenly combined batter. It's going to be pretty runny!
4. Pour the batter evenly into the three tins and bake for 25-30 minutes. Check for doneness with a wooden skewer or cocktail stick. Once baked, pull the tins out of the oven, let them rest at room temp for about 10 minutes before popping the sponges out carefully on a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
5. Once cooled, use a cake leveller or bread knife to torte the cakes into even layers and use the scraps to make crumbs in a chopper. I like using 5 layers of sponge for the layer cake.

Guinness Malt Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Ingredients

• 150ml egg whites
• 225g granulated/caster sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 300g butter, softened at room temperature
• 100ml Guinness stout
• 100g Malted milk powder

Method

1. Follow the Swiss meringue buttercream recipe to make a batch of neutral Swiss meringue buttercream.
2. Pour the Guinness and malted milk powder into a saucepan and bring to a simmer over low heat, stirring well to dissolve the malted milk drink powder. Do not boil or overheat!
3. Once the buttercream is ready, pour the malted Guinness paste into the mixing bowl and whip to combine. It's DELIGHTFUL.

Guinness Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients

• 120g dark chocolate
• 60g butter, cubed
• 60ml Guinness stout

Method

1. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a bain-marie or microwave (make sure it's a microwave-safe bowl!)
2. Stir in the cubes of butter till it has combined well with the melted chocolate.
3. Pour in the Guinness and stir till mixed in.

Decorating the Guinness Chocolate Malt Cake

1. Dab a bit of the Guinness malt buttercream in the middle of an 8-inch round cake board or drum. Place a Guinness chocolate sponge layer in the center.
2. Spread a layer of buttercream evenly over the sponge layer using a palette knife and place another layer of sponge on top. Repeat with buttercream and sponge layers until you've used up 5 layers of sponge.
3. Smooth a crumb coat of buttercream on the outside of the layered stack and place it in the fridge to firm up for 15-20 minutes. Once firm, smooth another layer of buttercream on using an angled palette knife or cake smoother/scraper.
4. Coat the base of the cake with sponge crumbs and place the cake in the fridge to chill until firm.
5. Warm the Guinness ganache until 28-32 degrees Celsius. Spoon it along the top in a 2-inch section at the edge of the cake and using the back of a tablespoon, gently push some ganache over the edge to create lovely drips along the cake. Repeat till all the edges of the cake have drips and then flood the middle of the cake with ganache to cover the top. You can see step-by-step photos of the drip cake technique here.
6. Sprinkle cake crumbs over the top and pipe stars or swirls of buttercream along the edge if you wish.

Kick back with a pint of Guinness and enjoy this utterly delectable cake on Saint Patrick's Day, or any other day for that matter. It's divine!

If you've tried my recipe or have any questions on it, please do drop them into the comments below! And if you've got any photos of your cake, do tag me on Instagram @angesdesucre #angesdesucre so

If you've tried my recipe or have any questions on it, please do drop them into the comments below! And if you've got any photos of your cake, do tag me on Instagram @angesdesucre #angesdesucre so I can ogle your creation! And if you can't be bothered with all this, you know you can just order our blinged-out Chocolate Guinness Cake and have it delivered in London or order it via Selfridges for collection.

Lots of love,

Reshmi xoxo