![Irish Car Bomb Cake - four layers of Chocolate Guinness Cake with Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting and thick whiskey ganache. [bethcakes.com]](https://i0.wp.com/bethcakes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/icbc02B.jpg?resize=570%2C854&ssl=1 "Irish Car Bomb Cake - four layers of Chocolate Guinness Cake with Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting and thick whiskey ganache. [bethcakes.com]")
Look at me posting things early! I’ve never done a post like this before, but I’m super excited to be a part of a little blog party celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. So get ready for 11 boozy recipes full of stout beer, Bailey’s Irish Cream, and Irish whiskey. And whatever secret + miracle hangover cure you swear by. Haha, jk. Sort of.
This Irish Car Bomb Cake is probably one of the richest chocolate cakes I’ve ever made. And just to be clear, the title is referring to the beer/cocktail/bomb shot/drink. Not like, an actual event that happened. Had to clear that one up for my fam.
![Irish Car Bomb Cake - four layers of Chocolate Guinness Cake with Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting and thick whiskey ganache. [bethcakes.com]](https://i0.wp.com/bethcakes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/icbc03B.jpg?resize=570%2C854&ssl=1 "Irish Car Bomb Cake - four layers of Chocolate Guinness Cake with Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting and thick whiskey ganache. [bethcakes.com]")
This St. Patty’s Day treat is made up of four towering layers of chocolate stout cake with Bailey’s Irish Cream frosting between the layers. I had intended to cover it with drizzly whiskey ganache, but it sort of turned out to be a whiskey ganache blob that I had to spread out with a spatula. And coerce down the sides of the cake. Still boozelicious. Uh, sorry.
But I’m not sorry about all of the chocolate going on here. Who needs green stuff on St. Patrick’s Day, right? Honestly, I wish I could have worked some green in here somewhere, but when it comes to food coloring, I somehow get it all over the place. Probably because I’m actually 12 years old on the inside. I am thinking of making a green beer recipe I saw at work, though. So look out for that on the IG. 😉
![Irish Car Bomb Cake - four layers of Chocolate Guinness Cake with Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting and thick whiskey ganache. [bethcakes.com]](https://i0.wp.com/bethcakes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/icbc04.jpg?resize=570%2C854&ssl=1 "Irish Car Bomb Cake - four layers of Chocolate Guinness Cake with Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting and thick whiskey ganache. [bethcakes.com]")
After the ganache on this cake had set, it was a little more solid than I was expecting. I may or may not have eaten a lot of it right off the top of the cake. In case you’d like your ganache to be a little more fluid, which is what I would recommend, the recipe below has been adjusted for that. Either way, you can’t go wrong!
This cake uses about one bottle of Guinness, and since I’m not really a beer-drinker and there are five more bottles in my fridge, you’re probably going to see many more chocolate stout recipes on bethcakes. It’s only logical, right? Even as someone who doesn’t like dark beers, the combination of stout and chocolate cake is incredible. It has more of a bittersweet flavor, which pairs magically with the Bailey’s frosting. Adding Bailey’s to warm drinks on winter nights is great and all–but whoever first added it to butter and powdered sugar–I love that guy.
Check out the rest of the amazing St. Patrick’s Day recipes from these awesome bloggers!
URBAN BAKES – Sweet & Salty Boozy Irish Truffle Cake
Baking a Moment – Irish Cream Profiteroles
The Cheery Baker – Baileys Mint Chocolate Poke Cake
Grandbaby Cakes – Baileys Mint Chocolate Cream Pie
gotta get baked – Chocolate Baileys Cheesecake
Jessiker Bakes – Guinness Chocolate Cake
Blahnik Baker – Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes with Whiskey Caramel and Baileys Buttercream
Bakes In Slippers – Guinness Chocolate Stout Milkshake
Chez CateyLou – Guinness Stout Chocolate Donuts
House of Bakes – Drunken Blondie
ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup oil
- 3 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cup Guinness
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1 cup butter, room temp and cut into tablespoons
- 1/4 cup Bailey's Irish Cream
- 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 4-5 tbsp heavy cream
- 2 tbsp Irish wishkey
instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 and line 4 (or two) 8 inch cake pans with parchment paper. Spray pans with nonstick spray.
- Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and cocoa powder in a bowl and carefully whisk together.
- In another bowl, combine sugar, oil, and eggs. Mix until incorporated.
- Add the buttermilk and half of the flour/cocoa powder mixture. Mix until just combined.
- Repeat with the Guinness and the rest of the flour/cocoa powder mixture. Mix until completely combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans. If you have four 8 inch pans, you can bake all the layers at once. If you have two 8 inch pans, just bake two layers first and refrigerate the rest of the batter. When the first two layers come out of the oven, take the batter out of the fridge. Then, when the cake pans are cool enough to touch, let the two layers cool on a wire rack and you can rinse out the pans and re-prepare them.
- Bake cakes for 23-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the layers comes out clean. Let the cake layers cool for 10 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, or large bowl with a handheld mixer, cream butter on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy.
- Add Bailey's and half of the powdered sugar. Mix on low speed until just combined. Then mix on medium speed until completely combined.
- Repeat with the second half of the powdered sugar.
- (If your frosting is too thin at this point, you can add another 1/2 cup powdered sugar.)
- When the cake layers are cool, spread frosting between layers.
- In the bottom of a double boiler, bring about 1 inch of water to a simmer.
- In the top of the boiler, add chocolate chips and heavy cream. Stir continuously until the chocolate chips have almost melted completely.
- Remove from heat and stir until smooth.
- Stir in whiskey. (If you think the ganache is still too thick at this point, stir in one tablespoon of heavy cream at a time until the desired consistency is reached.)
- When the ganache has cooled, pour over the top of the cake.
- Serve!
Recipe from bethcakes. All images and content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without permission. If you would like to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or link back to this post for the recipe. Thank you.
For more super fun St. Patrick’s Day things, check out my St. Patty’s Day board on Pinterest!
![Irish Car Bomb Cake - four layers of Chocolate Guinness Cake with Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting and thick whiskey ganache. [bethcakes.com]](https://i0.wp.com/bethcakes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/icbc01A.jpg?resize=570%2C854&ssl=1 "Irish Car Bomb Cake - four layers of Chocolate Guinness Cake with Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting and thick whiskey ganache. [bethcakes.com]")
Fun fact: I was in marching band in high school, and my senior year we marched in the St. Patrick’s Day parade in NYC. It was super ironic because our school colors were green and gold and we totally matched the festivities.
I am in love with this cake! It looks like it would be a party for sure!
Thanks, Janelle! Totally a party. 🙂
Holy cow, this cake looks unreal! I need this in my life.
Thanks, Jocelyn!
I’m addicted to chocolate. So this would not last long in my house! I’ve always wanted to make the Irish car bomb cake. Thanks for the inspiration!
Thanks, Melanie! You should really make an Irish Car Bomb cake. So chocolaty!
Such a lush looking cake! I do love beer but mixing the stout with chocolate and butter and the sugar and…ok I will stop there. Great looking cake!
Haha. Thanks, Derik!
Whiskey, Guinness, and Bailey’s – you really know how to celebrate! This cake looks absolutely amazing! So gorgeous and so delicious! Can’t wait to see the rest of your Guinness recipes!
Thank you, Cate! Hopefully everyone won’t get tired of the Guinness recipes, haha. I have a LOT leftover!
Wow! I am pretty sure this cake is leaving me speechless…. All I want to do is grab a fork and dig in. Looks amazing – as always 🙂
This cake makes me wish I was Irish! Just beautiful and love the photography and additional recipes!
Thanks! Glad you liked all the other recipes!
I’ve been wanting to bake a guinness chocolate cake for a long time, Beth, and seeing how gorgeous your cake turned out is the push I needed! I have no doubt the flavours taste amazing together and I’m drooling over that rich, luscious ganache over top. Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you! Re: marching band, very cool! That must’ve been an incredible experience marching in the NYC parade!
Thanks so much, Nancy! I hope you do try it. The flavors are wonderful together! So rich and chocolaty. Marching in NYC was pretty cool, but I remember it was extremely hot that day, haha. Still a cool experience.
My jaw dropped at first glance. What an intoxicating mixture of flavors and textures and ALCOHOL. 🙂
I’m sure that everybody who got a slice are more than happy right about now; I know I’d be.
Thank you, Graham! Intoxicating is a good word for it, haha. 🙂
You are right, who needs green! This cake shines without the effect of any food coloring 🙂
Green, shmeen. Chocolate is where it’s at. 🙂 Thanks, Meriem!
I love your high rise cake and how you slapped that ganache right on there like there’s no tomorrow. Messy chocolate dripped on the side of a cake, is my weakness. I don’t know what it is about it but it looks so good!
High rise cake! That’s a good name for it. 🙂 Thanks, Connie!
I think chocolate is appropriate for ANY holiday. Green is cute and fun but I’ll happily take a chocolate cake for any holiday no matter what!
You are so right, Nora! Chocolate is always acceptable. 🙂
This looks amaaaazing Beth! I could use a giant slice of that right now! I love the way you did the ganache, I think the more the better. Drizzle schmizzle. Good job on getting the St. Patty’s day recipe ahead of time 🙂
Thanks, Katy! Drizzle schmizzle indeed. 🙂
Wow, that is a chocolate tower! And I can just imagine how delicious it is. I usually have my daughter, Dahn, do the baking as she is so much better at it, but this is tempting me, big time.
It’s definitely a chocolate tower! I hope you give it a shot, Pat! 🙂
This is a tall cake, which is a good thing. It tastes as good as it looks.
Thanks so much! I agree that the height is a good thing. 🙂
Seriously Beth your photos get more and more gorgeous every time I come on your site. Please teach me your skills!! This looks gorgeous! Love the hashtag 🙂
Girl, you do not need my skills! haha. I always love your gorgeous photos and think the same thing when I go to your blog! 🙂
My gosh!! This cake is stunning!!! And has everything a St Patrick’s day cake should have…all that booze and CHOCOLATE!!! I love it. PS: I also love your board 🙂
Thanks so much, Zainab! Booze and chocolate are required. 😉
Seriously! This cake is gorgeous! The layers, the chocolate on top I cannot get enough! I love how you took a drink and turned it into a cake! I need a piece or five! And don’t worry I am also 12 years old on the inside too 😉
Is it acceptable to just leave this emoticon as a comment? :O
I hope so because that’s what I did when I saw this cake. Amazing.
This cake is gorgeous! Whoever ate that slice is one lucky person!
Wow, this cake looks stunning Beth! I wish I could just grab the fork and dig right in – seriously love all those gorgeous layers and dripping ganache! Plus with all that booze – this would totally steal the show at any St. Paddy’s day party!
Oh myyy, this looks incredible!! So rich and fudgy and delicious, like the chocolate cake of my dreams + alcohol. So right. Pinned!
Such a delicious looking cake! Between the stout, bailey’s and whiskey this has got some great stuff going on in it! And all the chocolate doesn’t hurt either : )
What say what!! Look at that cake.. I might be drooling..
oh wow! it looks amazing!
This looks awesome! I made Guinness cupcakes a few years back and promptly fell in love with the idea of boozy desserts. Best of both worlds!
I LOVE the Guinness/chocolate combo! Something in that dark, malty beer just brings out the best in chocolate. Your cake sounds (and looks!) phenomenal! Definitely sharing on FB, Twitter, & Pinterest 😉
You knocked it out of the park with this one Beth! This cake looks sooo decadent!! Love the mix of the liquors.
Love the pics!
I don’t think I’ve ever been that excited for St. Patrick’s Day until this year. LOOK AT THAT CAKE! MY GOD IT NEEDS A HOLIDAY ALL ON ITS OWN! 🙂 Happy St. Patrick’s Day indeed, Beth!
This cake is all kinds of awesome sauce!!! 🙂 I’m especially loving that whiskey ganache! Pinned!
Your pictures are amazing and this cake looks so delicious! Pinned 🙂 !
I’d love to make this cake, but was wondering if it’s possible to make it in a square pan and not make a layer cake, does that change the recipe too much?
What would you suggest?
Hi, Aliza! You can definitely bake it in a square cake pan, but you will just have a LOT of batter left over. You could always store the leftover batter in the fridge for a few days, or go ahead and bake all of it and store those leftovers in the freezer. Hope you enjoy the cake!