Excuse me Sir, I will need to see your ID before you eat that cake.

This weekend was jam-packed with important events to celebrate, and like most important events, they were largely centered around food and/or alcohol.  The obvious, St. Patrick’s Day, overlapped this year with the slightly lesser known National Corn Dog Day.  And then of course we had our good friend Mark’s birthday.  I decided to theme his cake around the former,  although a corn dog cake could be interesting.   I couldn’t find anything that sounded better than the cup cakes I made last year, but I’m kind of over cupcakes, especially for birthdays.  So I made the same rich, boozy, dessert in the form of a cake.

“Car Bomb” Cake
(Guinness chocolate cake with a dark chocolate whiskey ganache filling, topped with Bailey’s Irish Cream icing)

From Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:

For the Guinness Chocolate Cake

• 1 cup Guinness, or other stout beer
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 cup sour cream

Ganache Filling

• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
• 1 to 2 teaspoons Irish whiskey

Bailey’s Frosting (see Recipe Notes)

• 3 to 4 cups confections sugar
• 1 stick (1/2 cup or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3 to 4 tablespoons Bailey’s Irish Cream liquor

Directions:

Guinness Cake: 

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and grease two round can pans. Bring 1 cup stout and 1 cup butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.
2. Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined.
3. Divide batter among cake pans; Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 17 minutes. Cool on a rack completely.

Ganache filling: 

1. Put chocolate chips in a heat proof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then stir until smooth.  Add the butter and whiskey and stir until combined.
2. Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to spread. Once solidified (this might take a while in the refrigerator, especially if you use the full amount of whiskey) spread over first bottom layer of cake.  Carefully place the second layer on top; reserve the remaining ganache for drizzling.

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, drizzle in the Bailey’s and whip it until combined. If this has made the frosting too thin (it shouldn’t, but just in case) beat in another spoonful or two of powdered sugar.
3. Ice the cake and drizzle with the remaining ganache.

Johanna