Triple Layer Guiness Cake (Chocolate Stout Cake) with Bailey's Frosting and Whiskey Ganache

Every St. Patrick's Day, I break out a Guinness recipe. Mostly this is because I'm a dark chocolate person, and Guinness, much like coffee, makes good chocolate take on a darker, slightly more bitter and complex taste. Add to that a sense of satisfaction at boozy cakes, and car bomb cake is just a hop, skip, and a jump away. In the past I've made Car Bomb Cupcakes, but this year I went for the full-on cake, decorated to look like the top of an iconic pint glass. I also did not use Guinness this year, but opted instead for Duck Rabbit Milk Stout. The world of fantastic stouts is too great too always use Guinness, especially with the crazy St. Patrick's day mark up.

I have to admit that I had grand plans to take detailed photos of the stacking and icing of the cake, which I immediately forgot in the moment of icing. These pictures are from day three of this cake's life, after it had been hidden under foil overnight, and thus does not do the cake justice. This is a bummer. But trust me, the icing is not so hard as it seems, as you only need to rough ice this cake. You are making both the chocolate ganache and the Bailey's buttercream, but they use different methods. You don't have to cream the butter for the ganache, and the amounts come out perfectly to ice the center layers and sides in the chocolate ganache and use all of the buttercream for the top of the cake. 

This recipe makes three layers in 8" cake pans, or 2 layers in 9" cake pans. If you are like me and get very anxious about evenly weighing your cake pans/ do not have three cake pans so need to make them in waves, I have found that 2 lbs. for each layer should be about right (1 lbs 15 3/4 oz if you are using large instead of extra large eggs) for an 8" cake. Make sure, if you are making the 9" pan, that your cake pan is at least 2" deep. If you only want to use a single can of Guinness (weighing in a 14.9 oz), you can top off the cake with water or cold coffee (as a substitute for the espresso powder). Or you can enjoy the rest of that smooth 2nd Duck Rabbit milk stout during the cooking of the cake.

Chocolate Milk Stout Cake (Guinness Cake)

Ingredients

Stout Cake
2 cups stout or dark beer, such as Guinness
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups Dutch-process cocoa
4 cups All purpose flour
4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon espresso powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
4 extra large eggs
8 oz sour cream


Chocolate Whiskey Ganache
1 pound bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 -4 tablespoons whiskey (to taste)
1 teaspoon espresso powder

Bailey's Irish Cream Buttercream Frosting
 3 to 4 cups confections sugar

1 stick (1/2 cup or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperatue 

1/4 cup Baileys - 1 airplane bottle's worth, plus more to taste

Additional milk or cream for blending if necessary.

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. 
2. Cut three round parchment paper circles that fit neatly in the bottom of 3 8" cake pans or 2 9" cake pans.
3. Grease and flour three 8" or two 9" cake pans, and line them with the parchment paper circles.
4. For the cake: Place the stout, espresso powder and butter in a large, heavy saucepan, and heat until the butter melts.
5. Remove the pan from the heat, and add the cocoa powder.
6. Whisk until the mixture is smooth and shiny. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
7. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl; set aside.
8. In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a standing mixer, beat together the eggs, vanilla and sour cream on medium for about a minute.
9. Add the stout-cocoa mixture, mixing to combine.Use a batter guard if you have one.
10. Add the flour mixture a little bit at a time and mix together at slow speed. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, and mix again for 1 minute. 
11.  Divide the batter equally among the prepared pans. (See above for weighing hints.) Drop the pan a couple times against the top of the counter to even out batter and let any air bubbles escape prior to baking.
12. Bake the layers for 35-38 minutes for 8" pans, or 45 to 50 minutes for 9" pans, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. 
13. Remove the cakes from the oven and cool on a rack for 10 minutes before turning the cakes out of their pans and returning to the rack to finish cooling completely before frosting. If you are reusing a cake pan, wait an additional 10 minutes for the empty pan to cool before rinsing and re-greasing. 
14. For the whiskey ganache: Place the chopped chocolate in a large heatproof bowl along with the espresso powder if using.
15. Bring the cream to a simmer in a heavy, medium-sized saucepan, stirring frequently and watching to make sure not to scald the cream.
16. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and stir until the mixture is completely smooth and melted. The mixture will start out looking almost a little separated before chocolate melts and blends. 
17. Stir in the whiskey and vanilla. Refrigerate until the icing is spreadable, stirring occasionally, about an hour and a half. If you do not stir the edges will get overly stiff and have to be reincorporated during assembly.
18.  For the Bailey's Irish Buttercream: Whip the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, for several minutes. You want to get it very light and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar, a few tablespoons at a time.
19. When the frosting looks thick enough to spread or thicker, drizzle in the Baileys (or cream if you are doing the non-alcoholic option) and whip it until combined and frosting is correct texture. 
20. If this has made the frosting too thin (it shouldn’t, but just in case) beat in another spoonful or two of powdered sugar. Adjust for taste and desired degree of alcohol.
21. To assemble: If all of your cakes are rather domed, trim one cake layer to have a flat top, if necessary.
22. Place the layer upside down on a serving plate or cake stand. Spread 1/3 of the chocolate whiskey icing over just the top of the layer, starting with a large mound of icing in the middle of the cake, and moving your spreader around in a circular motion to spread icing all the way to the edges of the layer. Don't worry if it spills over the edges of the cake a little, you'll get to fix that later.
23. Top with another cake layer, top side down, and repeat the process. If you baked three layers, add that one also.
24. Use the remaining frosting to cover the sides of the cake. You can gently press the layers closer together if the stacking feels a little iffy, but be very careful to keep the cake straight. To clean up your mess on the edge of the serving plate, using a paper towel dipped in water to carefully remove any chocolate.
25. Top the top layer of the cake with a generous layer of the Bailey's buttercream frosting, making sure that the edge of the Bailey's covers the top of the edge of whiskey ganache. 
26. Store in fridge until ready to serve. Remember that the top layer of buttercream will not stiffen as much as the ganache will.
    

Peppermint Mocha Cookies

These cookies are almost like a tiny little brownie topped with peppermint butter cream. I make them every year for Christmas as my official "festive" cookie. They're a bit more unusual than your standard sugar cookie or gingerbread cookie, but feel right at home among their more traditional holiday brethren, and round out any good cookie exchange with a rich chocolate option. And if you want them outside the month of December, just omit the food coloring, or go with red or blue instead of the admittedly Christmas driven green. They're not that hard to make. They look adorable, and you get to play around with a mallet. Who doesn't want to play with a mallet?

Speaking of which, when crushing your candy canes, try and really crush them down into a fine crumb of candy cane. You want the cookies to have a bit of texture and crunch, but not have such large pieces that they get caught in your teeth while eating. The color of the candy cane will still be evident against the butter cream backdrop. Make sure to ice then top immediately, instead of icing a large number then going back to top with candies. The frosting will start to harden very quickly, and once that happens, the peppermint won't stick. It is easiest to just got frost, top, plate. Frost. Top. Plate. If pressed for time, the cookies can be made the day before you frost. Store in an air-tight plastic container along with a slice of torn up sandwich bread. The sandwich bread prevents the cookies from drying out and keeps the chew. They may stick together very slightly when stacked. This is fine. Remember, you are frosting the cookies, so small blemishes on the top will be washed a way in a delicious layer of mint frosting. Frosting covers all. Be generous with the frosting. It's meant to be a thick, almost cake-like layer of frosting.

The cookies will not spread very much in the oven. They are meant to be about the size of a silver dollar.

Cooking Time: 30 minutes active, 30 minutes inactive Makes 24-30 small cookies

Ingredients

Cookies
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2   cup cocoa powder
1/2   teaspoon baking soda
1/2   teaspoon table salt
8      tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), softened but still cool
3/4   cup granulated sugar
1/2   cup brewed espresso or strong coffee, cooled

1/2   teaspoon espresso powder (optional)
1      teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting
6     tablespoons unsalted butter , softened
2     cups confectioners' sugar
2     tablespoons milk
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract (or to taste)
3 to 4 drops green or red food coloring 
4      peppermint candy canes (or about 10-12 peppermint wheels), crushed into crumbs

Instructions

1. For the cookies: Adjust oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 large (18 by 12-inch) baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Sift flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt together into medium bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl with rubber spatula.
4. Dissolve espresso powder into cold coffee. (If coffee is warm, dissolve espresso powder, then place measuring cup of coffee in a larger measuring cup serving as an ice water bath to cool quickly.
5. Add cooled espresso and vanilla and beat at medium-low speed until combined. Don't worry if it looks curdled, that will fix itself when you add the dry ingredients. Scrape down bowl.



Don't worry, it'll work itself out.



It may curdle when coffee is added

6. With mixer on low speed, gradually add dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
7. Roll dough into thirty 1-inch balls. Place 15 balls on each prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart. 
8. Bake until just set, rotating sheets from front to back and top to bottom halfway through baking, 8 to 11 minutes. 

9. Cool cookies on sheets for 2 minutes; transfer with metal spatula to wire rack to cool completely, at least 30 minutes. (Cookies can be stored in airtight container with a torn piece of sandwich bread or a couple of sugar cubes for up to 4 days.)
10. For the frosting: Take the candy canes, and place inside a gallon ziploc bag. Seal the bag tightly, then place on a cutting board and strike with the smooth, wide side of a mallet until the candy canes become a fine powder. Set aside while you make the frosting.
11. With an electric mixer, beat butter at medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute. 
12. With mixer running, add confectioners' sugar a 1/4 cup at a time and beat at medium-low speed until most of the sugar is moistened, about 45 seconds. 
13. Scrape down bowl and beat at medium speed until mixture is fully combined and starting to cream, about 3 minutes. Scrape down bowl.
14. Add milk, peppermint extract, and food coloring and beat at medium speed until incorporated, about 10 seconds, then increase speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, scraping down bowl once or twice. 
15. Frost a cooled cookie with a rubber spatula or angled spatula and immediately sprinkle with crushed mints. Place on a plate for the frosting to harden, and continue frosting the rest of the cookies. (Once frosted, cookies are best served within 3 days.)

Guiness Cupcakes with Bailey's Frosting (Car Bomb Cupcakes)

UPDATE- So I updated this recipe a bit when I made a Guiness Cake this year for St. Patrick's Day. The cake recipe is a bit denser than this recipe, relying on baking powder more than baking soda to rise and with a little more chocolate. I also made the chocolate whiskey frosting.

Guiness cake is delicious. It can be made with any chocolate or dark stout beer, such as Duck Rabbit Milk Stout. There seem to be two main recipes for it online, Nigella Lawson's and the Great Barrington Brewery recipe. I have made both. These cupcakes I choose Nigella Lawson's, adapted it for cupcakes, and increased the darkness to it by adding a 1/4 cup of coffee in addition to the Guiness. However, while the recipe calls for a cream cheese frosting, I used the Bailey's Irish Cream Butter Cream recipe found on Smitten Kitchen. If you are asking, why did you not ALSO do the Chocolate Whiskey Ganache on Smitten Kitchen to truly make it a car bomb cupcake? The answer is two-fold. First, I didn't have a tiny baking round at my disposal, as this was made at my sister's house for my brother-in-law's birthday. Secondly, this cake is very rich and the Bailey's frosting is over the top and alcoholic as is. Last time I made the full-sized cake (using the Great Barrington recipe plus a little extra chocolate), I accused it (the cake) of getting me drunk. That might have been an unfair accusation given the wine consumed at that dinner party prior to the cake's arrival on the scene, but the point is the same. There's alcohol in the Bailey's and I think that's enough and that the whiskey ganache is unnecessary.

Unlike the Irish Cream, the Guiness alcohol does cook fully off, so if you want to serve this to kids, just do a basic cream cheese frosting instead. When I make this for St. Patrick's Day, I only top the top of the cake, making it look like a glass of Guiness with the foam on top. 

The superfine sugar is always nice to use in baking. If you don't have it, you can just use regular sugar, or if you are feeling fancy, run 2 cups of regular sugar through a food processor for a minute, creating a finer sugar. Remember that making frosting is not an exact science (unlike most else things in baking, so enjoy it). It will look wrong, then right, then wrong again. The trick is to add the powdered sugar in batches at a time to the creamed butter. This not only prevents a mess of powdered sugar everywhere, but also tends to require less sugar to hit your desired fluffy and delicious consistency.

Guiness Cupcakes with Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting (Car Bomb Cupcakes)

Guiness Cake:

Paper or Aluminum  muffin or cupcake wrappers
1 cup Guinness stout + 2 tablespoons
10 tablespoons (1 stick plus 2 tablespoons) unsalted butter
3/8 cup unsweetened dutch processed cocoa powder

1/4 cup cold coffee and/or 1 tsp espresso powder (both optional)
2 cups superfine sugar (I have used regular granulated sugar with no ill effects)
3/8 cup sour cream
2 extra-large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Bailey's Frosting:

3 to 4 cups confections sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperatue
3 to 4 tablespoons Baileys - 1 airplane bottle's worth

Additional milk or cream for blending if necessary

Instructions

For the Cupcakes

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. Line muffin tins with foil or paper liners
3. In a large saucepan, combine Guinness and butter. Place over medium-low heat until butter JUST melts, then remove from heat into medium sized bowl. 
4. Add cocoa and superfine sugar, and whisk to blend.
5. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine sour cream, eggs and vanilla; mix well. 
6. Add sour cream and egg mixture to Guinness mixture.
7. Add coffee and espresso powder if using.
8. Add flour and baking soda, and whisk again until smooth. 
9. Pour into muffin tins, filling about 3/4 of the way, and bake until risen and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 17 to 20 minutes, rotating once for even baking. This may slightly deflate the cupcakes, so it might be good to have an official "tester" cupcake.
10. Leave in muffin tins for five minutes then remove to a wire rack to finish cooling. Do not frost until completely cool.

For the Frosting

1. Whip the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, for several minutes. You want to get it very light and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar, a few tablespoons at a time.
2. When the frosting looks thick enough to spread or thicker, drizzle in the Baileys (or milk if you are doing the non-alcoholic option) and whip it until combined and frosting is correct texture. 
3. If this has made the frosting too thin (it shouldn’t, but just in case) beat in another spoonful or two of powdered sugar.
4. Frost the top of the cupcakes and serve. Store in a covered container in the fridge. They should keep for at least a day before starting to go stale.

Chewy Brownies

Fact: brownies make people happy. It is difficult to be sad when you are eating a brownie. Try it. Try getting through a whole chewy brownie with gooey chocolate chunks in it and then say you aren't feeling even a little bit better. A little more chocolatey. A little more loved.

Well, this is that kind of brownie, designed to make you smile and cover you in the goodness that is deep, chewy chocolate. And the secret to such complex and delicious chocolate? Coffee.  Coffee, and its baking ingredient partner in crime Instant Espresso Powder, makes chocolate taste more like chocolate. It adds complexity and depth and darkness without bitterness.Don't worry if you aren't a coffee drinker, it won't taste like coffee, just like better chocolate. Better chocolate goes a long way. There is a reason why Ghiradelli is more expensive, and it is because it is more delicious. And if you've ever sprung for the ridiculously expensive Whole Foods chocolate bars, you know that you can taste it in the baking. Does this mean that you can't make perfectly good brownies without paying $6 in chocolate? Of course, but just promise me you'll try it once. Just for me. Cooks Illustrated recommends Scharffen Berger for unsweetened chocolate and Callebaut Intense Dark Chocolate L-60-40NV (or Ghiradelli Bittersweet). If you don't have espresso powder, replace 2 tablespoons of water with 2 tablespoons hot coffee.

For the chewiest texture, it is important to let the brownies cool thoroughly before cutting. If your baking dish is glass, cool the brownies 10 minutes, then remove them promptly from the pan (otherwise, the superior heat retention of glass can lead to overbaking). If you have one, try cutting the brownies with a batter scraper. Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days. Why you would let brownies last that long is another mystery.

A note about weighing ingredients: this recipe has the option of weights as opposed to volumes for some measurements. Weights are a far superior method of measuring when it comes to baking, because in baking, precision matters, and the little inaccuracies add up. It is perfectly okay not have a scale, but if you have one, use it even though it's an extra step.

Chewy Brownies

Ingredients

1/3    cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoons instant espresso or coffee powder

1/2    cup plus 2 tablespoons boiling water

2       ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped

4       tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter , melted

1/2    cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2       large eggs

2       large egg yolks

2       teaspoons vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups (17 1/2 ounces) sugar

1 3/4 cups (8 3/4 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour

3/4    teaspoon table salt

6       ounces bittersweet chocolate , cut into 1/2-inch pieces

Making a Foil Sling

Place foil lengthwise
in pyrex

Add foil horizontally.
Press into sides,

Make sure there is
overhang. Spray foil.

Add batter over foil.

Grip sides of foil
to lift brownies out of
pan to cool.

Instructions

Adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 350 degrees.  Make a foil sling. Cut 18-inch length foil and fold lengthwise to 8-inch width. Fit foil into length of 13 by 9-inch baking pan, pressing it into the corners and up sides of pan so that there are no air bubbles; allow excess to overhang pan edges. Cut 14-inch length foil and fit into width of pan in the same manner, perpendicular to the first sheet.  Make sure there is overhang in all directions to use as a handle later.  Spray with nonstick cooking spray (so much faster than butter). Whisk cocoa, espresso powder (if using), and boiling water together in large bowl until smooth. Add unsweetened chocolate and whisk until chocolate is melted.  Whisk in melted butter and oil. (Mixture may look curdled and separated.)  Add eggs, yolks, and vanilla and continue to whisk until smooth and homogeneous.  Whisk in sugar until fully incorporated.  Add flour and salt and mix with rubber spatula until combined.  Fold in bittersweet chocolate pieces. Scrape batter into prepared pan and bake until toothpick inserted halfway between edge and center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached, 30 to 35 minutes.  Transfer pan to wire rack and cool 1½ hours. If using pyrex, remember to remove from pan after 10 minutes. Using foil overhang, lift brownies from pan. Return brownies to wire rack and let cool completely, about 1 hour. Cut into 2-inch squares and serve.