Low-calorie and dairy-free Chowder in the New England manner. Feel free to personalize it.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 40 mins |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 10 mins |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 1 2-layer 9-inch cake |
Ingredients
- 1 (18.25 ounce) package French vanilla cake mix
- 10 ½ tablespoons water
- ¾ cup Irish whiskey, divided
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- 3 eggs
- ¼ cup butter
- ½ cup white sugar
- 1 (15 ounce) can dark Irish stout beer (such as Guinness®)
- ½ cup white sugar
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 2 ¼ cups confectioners’ sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup Irish cream liqueur (such as Baileys®)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour 2 9-inch cake pans.
- Place the cake mix into a large mixing bowl. Pour the water into a 2-cup measure, and add enough Irish whiskey to total 1 1/3 cup of liquid (about 10 1/2 tablespoons). Reserve remaining whiskey. Beat the whiskey and water mixture, vegetable oil, and eggs with an electric mixer on low speed just until cake mix is moistened; increase speed to medium, and beat until the batter is smooth, about 2 minutes. Pour batter into the prepared cake pans.
- Bake in the preheated oven until the cakes are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cake comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.
- While the cake is baking, pour remaining Irish whiskey (about 1 1/2 tablespoon) into a saucepan, and stir in 1/4 cup of butter and 1/2 cup of sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly, until sugar has dissolved; boil until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes.
- When cakes are done baking but still hot, poke holes all over the cakes (the end of a chopstick works well for this) and drizzle the whiskey syrup into the holes. Return the cakes to the oven, and bake for an additional 5 minutes.
- Remove cakes from oven, allow to cool in pans for 15 minutes, then remove from pans to finish cooling on wire racks.
- To make caramel sauce, mix the Irish stout beer with 1/2 cup of sugar in a saucepan over low heat. Simmer the mixture until thickened, about 40 minutes, stirring occasionally, and allow to cool.
- To make frosting, beat 1 cup of softened butter in a bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth, then gradually beat in confectioners’ sugar, about 1/2 cup at a time. Beat in salt, then add the Irish cream liqueur, beating until the frosting is light and fluffy.
- To assemble the cake, place a layer onto a cake serving dish; pour the Irish stout caramel over the first layer, allowing the caramel to drip down the sides of the layer. Place the 2nd cake layer on top, and top with the buttercream, swirling the frosting into decorative waves. Do not frost sides of cake.
Reviews
I made this for my bf birthday. the recipe was actually easy to follow and tasted great. I noticed with the measurements for the frosting, it made it tasted like salted buttercream, adding a touch moe confectioners sugar and baileys fixed that . Also, the whiskey in the batter is really strong, but does seem to cook out a bit. It turned out to be a big hit, especially topping it with chopped heath bar.
Pretty complicated. Like others, I had an issue with the stout Carmel. The cake was absolutely delicious.
The cake was good, guests had at least two pieces and ignored the Guinness “caramel” dripping all over or the crystallized whiskey “syrup”. The Bailey’s frosting actually saved the cake in the opinion of our guests. Will try it again. and maybe try a different way to handle the Guinness caramel and the hint on the “”syrup”
I was prepared to completely hate this cake, as I don’t like whiskey or Guinness. I made it for my boyfriend’s birthday, because he loves Irish car bombs and whiskey and Guinness, so it seemed perfect. And as far as he was concerned, it was! He loved it, and most of his friends loved it too! I wasn’t a huge fan; the description is not lying when it says the whiskey flavor is dominant, but I still liked it more than I thought I would. I did use yellow cake mix instead, just because I didn’t have french vanilla, and I couldn’t get the Guinness to caramelize like it said, but I just drizzled it over the cake and it was perfectly fine. I’ll be making this again!
This cake is not worth the time energy and effort. The Guiness caramel sauce never did caramelize and was more like a Guiness syrup. I would do a variation of it using a 9×12 pan and poke holes in the top of it and use the guiness syrup to saturate the cake. The Baileys butter cream frosting is nice,so you could add that on the top. I thinkjthe recipe needs reviewed. Caramel sauce usually has a fat element in it. This caramel sauce did not.
made this cake last year and it was absolutely amazing! it will definetly be making an appearance at this years st. Pattys celebrations!
I made this cake for my boyfriend’s birthday and it was a hit! Followed recipe except for the frosting..I cut the butter and sugar in half and added more Baileys. The Guinness did not caramelize, so I poured onto first layer of cake. I also put a layer of frosting in between the stacking and it worked out perfect! This simple but delish cake has inspired and motivated me to get in the kitchen and bake!
I made this wonderful cake over the weekend for an Irish friend’s birthday party. He loved it and so did everyone else. I did have to adjust the icing, adding about another 2 cups of confectioner’s sugar and about 3T more irish cream ( i used carolan’s) Because you could taste nothing but the butter. , however, it was probably one of the best icings ever, very smooth, wonder flavor, excellent. The next time i make this cake, I will double the stout beer carmel, as it was only enough four one layer. but still a wonderful recipe thank you.
Just wonderful, couldn’t stop eating it. I also made it as cupcakes for a party, it went over well.
I am in NO means a cook, but I really wanted to make my favorite holiday a good one! I found this recipe and gave it a whirl. I have to say, it was very difficult for someone like me but I did accomplish it! My difficulties were when I made the whiskey syrup, I made it quicker than I was thinking it would take me, so it hardened up before I could pour it into the cake, so I had to do it again. Next, was the caramel sauce! That was the worst part! If it was necessary to have it, I would get rid of it! It was soooo hard! And sticky. When I finally got it as caramelized as I could, which I had to do all of the additions everyone said in the previous comments, the parts that dripped over the cake, but landed on my cake dish would not come off! I had to scrap it off with a knife. I was so scared at that point. Next came the frosting. It didn’t thicken up, which judging by 2 of the pictures, there’s didn’t either, I’m guessing because of the baileys. But it tasted great! Then came serving time. I was terrified, still about the caramel sauce, and that it was going to ruin the whole cake, make it hard to eat and sticky. But it was AMAZING! It was so soft and delicious! You could definitely taste the alcohol, no complaints here! I sent this recipe to my mother in law and sister in law who are both great cooks and waiting to see if they have the same difficulties I did. Great recipe. Would most likely do it again next year!
This cake was so much fun!! It has quite a few ingredients, and I was really careful making it, but came out great and everyone loved it. The car bomb theme and all the alcohol in it made it a party all it’s own!! Fantastic!!
This was really good! I especially loved the caramel sauce. HOWEVER, the frosting was very buttery. I think next time I will try to use 1 stick of butter instead of 2. It would definitely be healthier that way!
I overlooked the Jamison syrup so it was a little crystallized and that turned out to be everyone’s favorite part of the cake – the crunchy part. Only used one stick of butter in the frosting which seemed like the perfect amount to frost my 9 x 13 cake. My Guiness syrup caramelized beautifully, I added about a tablespoon of brown sugar to it. I thought it balanced out the flavors of the Jamison, Guiness and baileys very nicely. It did taste like an Irish car bomb.
I see that many had problems with the Guinness caramel sauce. Also it was quite bitter. I drizzled it over the icing trying to go for an Irish spiral. But next time I will not even make the sauce, the rest of the cake is wonderful!
I made this cake for work and everyone LOVED it!! I have been asked to make for a couple people’s birthdays as well. I would recommend this to anyone as it is very easy to make. I made it as a sheet cake instead of a layered cake and just adjusted the baking time accordingly.
Absolutely delicious! Best cake I have ever baked!!!
Awesome!! Cut the icing recipe in half. Take care that the guinness caramel doesn’t burn… it didn’t taste that great, consider using some real caramel instead
i made tons of adjustments, some of which were advised by other reviewers, such as using all of the whiskey for the sugar syrup mix and also halving the icing. this tastes just like an irish car bomb! my husband ADORED it!
This cake was the best cake I ever made! Thank you for sharing this recipe! The next time I make this cake I think I will add a thin layer of frosting to hold the two layers better.
A crowd pleaser for sure- IF you can get the consistency of the frosting and caramel right. I only used 1 stick+2 tbsp of butter for the frosting and it wasn’t too soft for the cake. I have not yet figured out how to make the caramel without it getting too hard.
im a cupcake girl – has anyone attempted to convert this recipe for cupcakes? or does anyone know a good way to convert it?