We’re celebrating all things Irish this week! Today’s menu is something sweet, because you can’t live on corned beef, am I right? And it just turns out that Guinness Stout makes the yummiest chocolate cake (and whiskey ganache = yum). I also wanted to see how it all worked out by cooking it in the Instant Pot (spoilers: GREAT!)
Instant Pot Baking
I have made cupcakes, bites, and brownies in the Instant Pot, always with great results. After that, the rich and moist Guinness chocolate cake was a great candidate to adapt for the IP. As it turned out, I didn’t need to adjust the recipe I usually use for cupcakes. If anything I could have scaled down the recipe because the bundt pan that fits in my pot is fairly small. I did have more batter than would fit in the cake pan. However, I decided to just use the overflow for bonus cake bites! Can’t really argue with that.
Luscious Dark Chocolate Whiskey Ganache
To top off the cake, I went with the perfect pairing of Guinness and Jameson Irish Whiskey. The effect isn’t overly boozy, it just adds another dimension to the flavor profile, which I really love.
Overall, it’s a really easy recipe to whip up!
Servings: 12 servings
Calories: 400
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 cup Guinness Stout
- 1 cup Butter
- 3/4 cup Valrhona cocoa powder
- 2 cups Cake flour
- 2 cups Super-fine sugar
- 1-1/2 tsp Baking soda
- 3/4 tsp Salt
- 2 Eggs
- 2/3 cups Creme fraiche
- Baking spray with flour
Ganache
- 8 oz Bittersweet chocolate chopped
- 2/3 cup Heavy cream
- 2 Tbsp Butter room temperature
- 2 tsp Jameson Irish Whiskey
Tools
- Instant Pot
- Silicone spatula
- Small sauce pan
- Small wire whisk
- Silicone whisk
- Stand mixer
- Cooling rack
- Mixer paddle with scrapers
- Medium-sized mixing bowl
- 2-cup Pyrex measuring cup
- 7″ Bundt pan
- Egg bites pan
- Aluminum foil
- Silicone sling with handles
- Cake plate
- Offset spatula
Instructions
Cake Batter
- Gather ingredients and tools.
- Prepare the bundt pan and cake bite pan by spraying liberally with baking spray.
- In a small sauce pan, heat the Guinness and butter until simmering.
- Remove from heat and add cocoa powder, stirring with a silicone whisk.
- Stir until very smooth. Set aside to cool.
- In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Stir with wire whisk to combine. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, with scraper paddles attached, add eggs and creme fraiche. Mix well to combine.
- Pour in the cooled guinness-chocolate mixture.Note: make sure the chocolate mixture is cool, otherwise you will curdle the egg mixture.
- Stir just until it is combined. Do not over-mix.
- Add the flour mixture in to the bowl and mix only a few turns, until it is combined, but still lumpy. Again, do not over-mix!
- Remove bowl from mixer and turn it over with your spatula, scraping up from the bottom to make sure it is all combined. Mixture will be thick and slightly lumpy.
- Carefully fill the bundt pan to roughly 2/3 full. You will have batter left-over.
- Cover the bundt pan with foil, puffing it up so that it gives the cake room to grow underneath. (Don’t wrap tightly.) Set the pan on the sling.
- Add a cup of water to the inner pot of your Instant Pot. Set the sling in the pot. Close the lid, and turn the vent to sealing.Cook on manual, high for 27 minutes. When the time is up, let the pot release pressure naturally for 10 minutes, and then carefully turn the vent to open, releasing the remaining pressure.
- While the cake is cooking, use the remaining batter to fill the cake bites. Divide the batter evenly between the bites.
- Remove the cake from the pot, and remove the foil. Let cool in the pan for a few minutes.
- If the cake has risen above the pan, you can use a knife to slice across the top to make a flat base. Turn the cake out of the pan onto a cooling rack by placing the rack upside down on the cake pan, then flipping the two over together. Remove the cake pan.
- Place your cake bite pan, covered with foil, on the silicone sling. Make sure there is still some water in the bottom of the inner pot, and place the cake bites in the pot.Cook the bites on manual, high for 7 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally until the pin drops. Then remove the bites and let cool on the rack with the cake.
Make The Ganache
- Note: you will need to wait until the cakes have completely cooled before you can ice them or the ganache will melt. The ganache works best if you can apply it as soon as it is made, so you can take a break between making the cake and making the ganache.
- Gather ganache ingredients.
- In a 2-cup Pyrex measuring cup, add the heavy cream and microwave for a few minutes until it begins to bubble slightly. The cream needs to be very hot, but keep an eye on it or it will boil over.
- In a medium-sized glass mixing bowl, add the chopped chocolate.
- Add the room-temperature butter, and pour in the hot cream, letting it cover the chocolate. Let it sit for a minute or two to heat through.
- Using a silicone whisk, stir the hot cream and melting chocolate and butter until it is very smooth. Scrape along the sides and bottom with the whisk to make sure it is all combined well. Then add the Jameson and combine well.
- Stir with a silicone spatula, scraping the sides of the bowl. The ganache should look super smooth and shiny.
Icing The Cakes
- Place the cake in the center of your cake plate.Use an offset spatula or large spoon and pour the icing around the top of the cake, letting it drip down the sides. Use the spatula to spread the icing around to cover all the sides.
- Place the cake bites around the sides, and pour icing over those too, smoothing the icing around the sides. When everything has icing on it, you can use the remaining icing (if any), to add more to the main cake, and give it a few ‘swirls’ on top.
- Feel free to grab one of the bite, and let your helpers have one too! That’s why we make bonus bites, after all. Enjoy!
Nutrition Facts
Guinness Chocolate Cake With Irish Whiskey Ganache
Amount Per Serving (1 serving)
Calories 400
Calories from Fat 270
% Daily Value*
Fat 30g46%
Saturated Fat 18g113%
Cholesterol 92mg31%
Sodium 367mg16%
Potassium 152mg4%
Carbohydrates 25g8%
Fiber 2g8%
Sugar 7g8%
Protein 5g10%
Vitamin A 775IU16%
Vitamin C 0.1mg0%
Calcium 32mg3%
Iron 1.5mg8%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Tried this recipe?Mention @BlakOpalEats or tag #blakopal!
I make Guiness cake every year for my son’s birthday, but this year my oven is broken! This recipe was a perfect solution! I made two small 8.5” cakes (high pressure for 28 minutes). I like to use a pancake batter bottle to squeeze the ganache right into the cake in little dollops and frost with Bailey’s Irish cream cheese frosting. Thanks for the IP recipe!