Shelene Low
Guinness Chocolate Cake + Coffee Chocolate Ganache
[ baking , cake ]

Close-up of sliced chocolate cake Close-up of a slice from my previous successful attempt

I have always loved chocolate cakes but for some reason, the ones I’ve bought never seemed to satisfy my cravings (or perhaps I need better chocolate cake recommendations). Hence, I decided to start making my own. This is probably not exactly the first chocolate cake I’ve ever made, but perhaps the first one I’ve started to seriously document. I wanted a space where I could ramble about my various kitchen experiments and what else better to start with than chocolate cake?

Baking with Guinness is a first for me, although the Guinness is one of my favourite beers ever (especially from the tap!). I’ve noticed that most guinness chocolate cakes are often paired with a cream cheese frosting. However, I wanted an extremely chocolatey cake so I paired it with a chocolate ganache.

The cake itself is easy to make and not extremely dense or rich. I don’t think the cake is moist enough for my liking, but the smooth rich ganache helps a lot. The coffee-infused ganache also gives an extra depth to the overall flavours of the cake.

This recipe is meant for baking in a loaf pan, but it probably also works in a regular round cake pan (although the cake does puff up a lot and cracks slightly on top).

Full cake in its glory, with dessicated coconut and ganache!

Cake

Recipe adapted from https://joythebaker.com/2022/03/chocolate-guinness-loaf-cake-with-cream-cheese-frosting/):

Instructions:

  1. Melt butter, whisk in beer and cocoa powder into the melted butter until smooth.
  2. In the same wet mixture, whisk in sugar, eggs, sour cream and finally the vanilla extract.
  3. Make the dry mixture separately, by mixing the flour, baking soda and salt.
  4. Start adding the dry mixture to the wet mixture, gradually. (dry to wet!)
  5. Pour final mixture into a lined loaf pan.
  6. Bake at 350 farenheit celsius, for 40-45 minutes.
  7. Make the ganache while cake cools
  8. Garnish with dessicated coconut flakes when the ganache has been poured on top. Best garnished when the ganache is still warm, such that the flakes stick well on the surface of the cake.

The baking time differs depending on your oven and size of baking pan. The best way to check if a cake is done is to use the toothpick test: always underbake, take it out of the oven and pass a toothpick (or something equivalent) into the cake and see if it comes out clean. If there is still batter/cake stuck to the toothpick, bake it longer. With time and experience, you can usually make a good decision on how much longer to bake it for. In general, it is better to underbake and check on the cake more frequently rather than overbaking.

Mine took 44-45 minutes, and I have always performed the toothpick test at 42 minutes.

The cake recipe is adapted from an existing recipe, except that I reduced the sugar by 20 grams because I thought 200g of sugar is too much. I’m honestly not sure if that influenced the structural integrity of the cake, but it still turned out puffed, fluffy and moist. So follow at your own discretion!

Ganache

Instructions:

  1. Place chocolate in a heat-proof bowl
  2. Add cream, espresso powder/coffee grounds and sugar into sauce pan.
  3. Bring the cream mixture to a simmer (DO NOT BOIL!)
  4. Pour heated mixture into chocolate
  5. Let the hot mixture rest for 3-5 mins. Do not stir during this period.
  6. Stir and pour the ganache over the cake before it cools too much.

For the ganache, I followed the general rules you can find anywhere about making a ganache. It is basically a 1:1 ratio between chocolate and heavy cream, but I tweaked the amount of chocolate to be slightly higher because I wanted a thicker ganache. It is important not to heat the cream mixture for too long, otherwise the overly hot mixture can overheat the chocolate and ruin it. A nice way to check is to just quickly dip a clean finger in the mixture. It should feel pleasantly warm and not too hot to touch. Tiny bubbles should be forming at the side of the pot.

Many coffee chocolate ganaches I’ve seen online usually use espresso or coffee powders of some kind, but I like the slight gritty texture and bitter flavours of coffee grounds so I included them directly into the ganache.

As I was using 85% finely chopped chocolate bars for the ganache, it often came out too bitter especially with the coffee grounds. Hence, I included the optional addition of sugar if one likes it sweeter or if very dark chocolate is used. I personally think using a 70-75% chocolate would be sufficiently sweet, without the additional sugar.

Post-bake notes:

I made an overly bitter cake, what now?

My failed attempt with a gritty and too bitter ganache…

I have made this cake twice now, and the first time it turned out too bitter due to the reduced sugar in the cake and the use of very dark chocolate in the ganache without additional sugar. Not to fret if your cake turns out too bitter, I ended up improvising with a somewhat decent solution: fruit sugar syrup!

After assembling the cake with the ganache, I tried to make candied limes as a garnish, in an attempt to salvage the bitter-tasting cake. Unfortunately, I have never successfully made candied fruits (yet) and ended up with just a lime syrup. It still sat very nicely on top of the cake, especially after being chilled for a few hours. It added a nice tanginess and slight sweetness which cuts through the overall bitter notes of the cake!

You can probably use any fruits of your liking, but I personally like the combination of citrus with chocolate. Basically, cut up some fruit and cook it in a sugar-water mixture (more sugar, less water) until it thickens slightly. Let the mixture cool for a bit since it will thicken more during the cooling process. Drizzle the mixture over the cake and let the cake chill in the fridge for a few hours.