Soaked Irish Chocolate Cake

posted by Megan on Mar 14, 2023 0 comments »

This was a fun project for Matt and I to tackle together. I didn’t want to be like everyone else and publish yet another Guinness chocolate cake, so we decided to see if there was something better. We tested 4 beers to find the best option for this soaked Irish chocolate cake.

slice of chocolate stout cake with tan Irish buttercream, chocolate ganache and sprinkles. There is a beer bottle in the background.

Table of Contents show

Chocolate cake

The cake layers themselves are rich and fudgy, staying moist even after a couple days in the fridge. I added an extra egg yolks and some sour cream to keep everything tender and soft. The chocolate flavor comes from a good amount of cocoa powder and melted chocolate that gets mixed right into the batter.

After the cake layers have cooled and are at room temperature, level them off with a large, serrated knife to make stacking and frosting easier. After you level them, use a pastry brush to give them a healthy soak of coffee. I used this Irish cream flavor from Bones Coffee, but any dark roast would also work. Be sure to save a couple tablespoons of that coffee to use in the buttercream!

whole chocolate cake with tan Irish buttercream, topped with chocolate ganache and sprinkles.

Frosting

To keep going with the flavor line, I used Irish cream and the same coffee that went into the cake to flavor the buttercream. I also added a little extra salt and the same amount of vanilla to balance everything out, and the resulting frosting was PERFECT for this soaked Irish chocolate cake.

The ganache topping that’s in the pictures is optional, but I included it in the recipe card anyways. Even if you skip it, there’s still plenty of chocolate in this cake!

The beer contenders

2 chocolate stouts and 2 Irish stouts. Since it would be a bit overkill to make 4 chocolate cakes, I wanted to narrow it down to the best tasting chocolate and then Irish stout so I’d only have to make 2 cakes. And since Matt is more beer-literate than I am, he was a huge help.

4 different stout beers to be used in the chocolate cake.

Breckenridge Brewery Nitro Irish Stout

The only nitro option on this list, so I was anxious to try it out and see if it affected the texture of the finished cake at all. I was also going to include the Guinness nitro cold brew coffee on this list, but Matt and I both decided that coffee with a little beer thrown in didn’t qualify for this recipe.

Matt’s tasting notes: “Nutty taste, creamy and smooth. A pleasant aftertaste with some bitterness, but that just goes with an ale. There was some chocolate that came through, but definitely more coffee. Again, as someone who likes lagers, I’d drink this if someone handed it to me, and probably have another one if there weren’t other options.”

Young’s Double Chocolate Stout

Matt’s tasting notes: “Disappointing. Faint tootsie roll flavor throughout, but stronger in the aftertaste. But overall, pretty underwhelming, especially for something that’s billed as a ‘double chocolate’ stout. I couldn’t smell the chocolate before drinking, either. When you could actually taste chocolate, it was almost like a fake extract flavor.

Samuel Smith’s Organic Chocolate Stout

Matt’s tasting notes: “This one smacks you in the face with chocolate, even before drinking it. And when you do drink it, you get a bold, smooth chocolate flavor. Of both of the chocolate stouts, this one deserved to be called “double chocolate” over the other one. Even a good 15 minutes after finishing this one, I could still taste the chocolate in my mouth. As a guy who hasn’t found an ale he likes, I’d drink it to the bottom and then buy a pack of it.”

Guinness Extra Stout

EVERYONE is making chocolate cakes with regular Guinness. For good reason, since the caramel and coffee notes go exceptionally well with chocolate. But again, the whole point of this was to see and explore other options. Unlike regular Guinness, Extra Stout is carbonated rather than nitrogenated, meaning the head isn’t as creamy or thick.

Matt’s tasting notes: “Least favorite. Kind of crisp, but I don’t like ales. There are some chocolate and caramel notes on the aftertaste, overall a pretty smooth drinking beer. This would probably go well in the cake, too.”

Choosing a beer

I tested one round with Samuel Smith’s Organic Chocolate Stout and then one round with the Breckenridge Brewery nitro Irish Stout. I was anxious to see if the nitro would give the cake a different texture, but both cakes came out soft, plush and decidedly moist.

Personally, we loved the cake made with the chocolate stout the most. There was the perfect hint of beer, but nothing that got in the way of the chocolate. However, the other cake was absolutely delicious, too! Thankfully, I confirmed that no matter what stout you use, you’re going to get a fantastic cake.