Chocolate Beer Cake

30 minutes - 35 minutes

Scroll to the bottom of the page to see questions Lindsey has answered on this recipe

This recipe is from Delia's Cakes.

The beer – dark stout (Guinness, Murphy’s or similar) – gives this cake an extra dimension, and the icing is so good it can be used on other chocolate cakes.

The Delia Online Cookery School: Fond of chocolate? Watch how to make more chocolate cakes in our video. Press the recipe image to play.

Got a question on Delia's recipes? Ask Lindsey

Ask a Question

Freezing Chocolate Beer Cake

Asked by: Liz

Does the chocolate and beer cake once iced, freeze? nb. I don’t add walnuts - severe nut allergy - & it is delicious without!

Answered by Lindsey: Yes it freezes very well. Kind regards Lindsey

Problem with the Beer Cake icing

Asked by: Deb

Hi Lindsey, I am a great fan of Delia, enjoying lots of her fantastic recipes over many years. Recently I tried making the Chocolate Beer Cake but had a problem when making the icing which thickened almost right away making it difficult to spread on the cake. I ended up having to roll out the icing and placing it on the top of the cake. The flavour was great but it did not have the expected glossy appearance. I did use traditional butter rather than spreadable. Would that be the reason for this problem? Thank you, Debbie

Answered by Lindsey: Hello Debbie, Spreadable butter doesn’t solidify like block butter so yes that may be part of the reason. It may also be that you overheated the chocolate as that will make the icing harder too. And lastly, Delia uses old fashioned tablespoons in her recipes which are 20mls or 2 dessertspoons so for this recipe it is 40mls of stout. Kind regards Lindsey

The Stout in Chocolate Beer Cake

Asked by: Rob C

Hi Lindsey, The Chocolate Beer Cake asks for a sweet stout. I’m not a stout drinker so which one could you recommend? Also, another question if I may. If I wanted to make an orange flavoured mousse for the squidgy chocolate cake, how would you advise doing that? Happy Easter :) Rob

Answered by Lindsey: Hello Rob, I’ve used Mackeson and Guinness Milk Stout, but I’ve also made this cake with standard Guinness too. For the mousse I would use the zest of a large orange and use 100mls of the freshly squeezed orange juice in place of the water. Happy Easter to you too, Lindsey PS. Don’t use shallow sandwich tins for the Beer Cake, this cake rises really well. Our tins are 4cm deep.

Method

All you do is sift the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a roomy mixing bowl, lifting the sieve quite high to give the flour a good airing as it goes down.

Then simply add all the other ingredients, except the stout. Now, using an electric hand whisk, combine them for about one minute until you have a smooth creamy consistency. Finally stir in the stout, a little at a time, until it’s all incorporated. Next divide the mixture between the two prepared tins and bake near the centre of the oven for about 30–35 minutes.

They are cooked when you press lightly with your little finger and the centre springs back. Then remove them from the oven and after about 30 seconds loosen the edges by sliding a palette knife all round then turn them out onto a wire cooling tray. Carefully peel back the lining by gently pulling it back. Now lightly place the other cooling tray on top and just flip them over so that the tops are facing upwards (this is to prevent them sticking to the cooling tray).

To make the icing: melt the broken chocolate with the stout in a bowl set over a pan containing 5cm of barely simmering water, without the bowl touching the water. When it’s melted (5–10 minutes) take it off the heat. Beat in the butter and leave it to cool a little before beating in the icing sugar with an electric hand whisk. Now transfer a third of the icing to a separate bowl and stir the chopped walnuts into that. After the icings have cooled to a spreadable consistency, sandwich the cake with the walnut icing, then spread the remaining two thirds of the icing on the top of the cake, using a palette knife.

Finally decorate with a circle of walnut halves. Leave the icing to set completely before storing in an airtight tin.

Ingredients

175g self-raising flour

¼ level teaspoon baking powder

1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

275g dark brown soft sugar

110g spreadable butter

2 large eggs, beaten

50g cocoa powder, sifted

200ml sweet stout

For the icing:

110g dark chocolate (minimum 70% cocoa solids), broken up

2 tablespoons sweet stout

50g spreadable butter

110g icing sugar, sifted

25g walnut pieces, finely chopped

To decorate:

8 walnut halves

Equipment

You will need 2 Delia Online 20cm Loose-based Round Sponge tins, greased with base liners plus two wire cooling trays

The Delia Online bakeware range is now available online, and you can buy our 20cm Round Sponge Tins with Loose Base and washable and reusable liners direct from Silverwood.

Click here for the tins
Click here for the liners