St. Patrick's Day Cake - Irish Guinness Car Bomb Cake

 You may be familiar with the cocktail known as an Irish Car Bomb - Guinness with Irish Cream and Irish Whisky. This cake is based on the same flavors, but is much easier to deal with the next morning.

While both the cake and the frosting contains alcohol, you'll be surprised at the finished result. The Guinness in the cake batter provides for a moist and tender crumb in the finished product, and the cocoa really shines through. The Irish Cream frosting is the perfect compliment to the cocoa cake - with just the merest hints of caramel and whisky coming out. Matter of fact - you won't want to save this for the once a year St. Patrick's Day thing. Whip this out anytime you want something absolutely delicious and beautiful to look at - and you'll be Bombshell! Pun intended this time...

• 1 cup Guinness
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Butter and flour 2 nine inch cake pans, and line with parchment paper.
2. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring the Guinness and butter to a simmer. Once all butter is melted, remove from heat and whisk in cocoa powder until smooth. Set aside and allow to cool.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream together until fully combined. Add the Guinness misture and beat until smooth. Stir in vanilla.
4. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. Pour the Guinness mixture into the dry ingredients and fold together gently with a rubber spatula. Divide the mixture among the prepared pans.
5. Bake in preheated oven for about 30 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean and the tops are slightly springy to the touch. Allow cakes to cool in their pans for ten minutes, then turn out onto wire cooling racks. Allow to cool completely before frosting.
6. Frost with Irish Cream Frosting, and garnish with Chocolate Ganache Glaze (recipes following).

You'll Need

• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 3 tablespoons Irish Cream liqueur (such as Baileys)

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar, scraping down sides of bowl until fully incorporated.
2. One tablespoon at a time, beat in Irish Cream Liqueur until the frosting is the desired consistency, spreadable but not too thin.

You'll Need:

• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons butter at room temperature

1. Place the chopped chocolate into a heatproof bowl.
2. In a small saucepan, bring cream to a full boil. Pour cream over the chopped chocolate, and stir in the butter.
3. Stir the mixture until the chocolate and butter are fully melted, and the chocolate is smooth and glossy.
4. Allow to cool until the mixture is just a bit over room temperature. Pour in drizzles over the frosted cake.