Easy Chocolate Guinness Cake {Beer Cake}

Best, quick and easy chocolate Guinness cake recipe, homemade with simple ingredients and starts off with chocolate cake mix. This soft, moist stout beer cake is loaded with chocolate frosting, ganache and full of cocoa flavor.

Whether you are looking for a boozy St.Patrick's Day dessert or an adult birthday cake, today's recipe is just for you. It's rich and indulgent and great for chocoholics. The beer offsets the sweetness perfectly. I also want to point out that there is no root beer in this recipe. Check out some of these other St.Paddy's Day recipes too: Leprechaun Cake Pops, Irish Trifle, Easy Rainbow Dessert Recipes/ Ideas and Green Desserts.

Jump to:

• Key ingredients for best beer cake
• Variations for chocolate stout cake
• How to make easy chocolate Guinness cake recipe with cake mix?
• Tips and Techniques
• Recipe FAQs
• Storage
• More doctored cake mix recipes
• Recipe

Key ingredients for best beer cake

• Eggs- Be sure they are large and at room temperature.
• Oil- Contributes to a moist cake.
• Guinness beer- Brings in a distinct flavor and adds moisture.
• Cake mix- You can use Devil's food cake or regular chocolate.
• Chocolate buttercream icing- A delicious classic and perfect for this cake.
• Heavy cream- Don't skimp on low fat cream.
• Chocolate chips- Best with semisweet chocolate.

Variations for chocolate stout cake

• Use alcoholic frosting- Try bailey's buttercream frosting or Irish cream frosting to really booze it up.
• Use yellow cake mix- Chocolate cake mix is the best, hands down! However, you can try a yellow cake mix, if you want the beer flavor to be really prominent.
• Replace ganache with frosting- Some people are intimidated by Chocolate Ganache but you can easily omit that and instead, just use chocolate frosting. I have shared one in the recipe card below but here are some other chocolate icing options you can try too: Chocolate Whipped Cream or Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting or Chocolate Ganache Frosting.
• Add more layers- Double the recipe and make 4 round cakes to make a taller layer cake.
• Birthday decorations- If you are making this for birthday parties, toss some sprinkles over the cake and add some cute candles.
• Add crunch- By tossing some chopped nuts like almonds, pistachios, pecans, walnuts between the cake layers and on top, as well.
• Add fillings- Drizzle a little Homemade Caramel Sauce between the cake layers.
• Make cupcakes- Instead of cakes, pour batter in cupcake liners and bake for about 20 minutes.

How to make easy chocolate Guinness cake recipe with cake mix?

1. Mix together- Eggs, beer, oil, and cake mix until combined.
2. Pour batter- Into cake pans and bake.
3. Fill and ice them- With chocolate frosting, then chill.
4. Pour ganache- Over the top and chill again.
5. Decorate- With chocolate toppings.

Tips and Techniques

• Brand of cake mixes– I have used these brands of cake mixes successfully: Pillsbury, Duncan Hines and Betty Crocker. I have not tried any other generic brands to know how it would affect this recipe.
• All ingredients should be at room temperature– That’s because they blend together smoothly and evenly.
• Temperature is key– Do not frost or ganache the cake until it has fully cooled down or else it will make a sticky, soggy mess.
• How much ganache to use? This is entirely a personal preference. Some people just like to drizzle a little all over the cake. Others, like me, pour ganache all over the cake to fully cover it.
• Decoration– Add sprinkles, chocolate chips (white or semisweet), store-bought chocolate decorations, chocolate shreds.
• Don’t over-mix cake batter– Because this will yield a tough cake and it can also cause the cake to collapse/sink during baking. Mix until all the ingredients are just combined. There may be a few lumps but you don’t have to worry about them.
• Don't over-bake cake- Or else you will get a dried out cake instead of one that is moist.
• Stout beer is best- And Guinness is very popular.
• Oil vs Butter- Normally, I prefer butter in doctored cake mix recipes but in this case, I highly recommend using oil because it prevents the cake from becoming too dense and keeps it light and airy.

Recipe FAQs

Storage

• Room temperature- This is best kept in the fridge but can be out for 2-3 hours.
• Refrigerate- Frosted cake can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 days in a sealed container.
• Freeze- Unfrosted cakes can be sealed tightly in plastic wrap and stored in the freezer for up to 1 month. When you are ready to assemble, allow the cakes thaw overnight in the fridge.
• Make ahead- This can be made up to 3 days a head if placed in a sealed container in the fridge. You can also keep the cake and frostings in separate sealed containers for up to 1 month. When you are ready to assemble, simply thaw and decorate per instructions below.

More doctored cake mix recipes

• Lemon Bundt Cake With Cake Mix
• Sock it To Me Cake With Cake Mix
• Louisiana Crunch Cake With Cake Mix
• Snowball Cake (Cheesecake Stuffed Chocolate Cake)
• Easy Black Forest Cake With Cake Mix
• Chocolate Molten Lava Cake (Crockpot)

Recipe

Until next time, tata my lovelies!