Pot O’ Gold Chocolate Stout Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
This Pot O' Gold cake is a super cute and kinda kitschy St. Patrick's Day dessert recipe - moist and fudgy chocolate cake laced with the flavor of chocolate stout and topped with not-too-sweet but super luscious cream cheese frosting! This is an easy Recipe and kid-friendly.
Prep Time30 minutesmins
Cook Time50 minutesmins
Resting time1 hourhr
Total Time2 hourshrs20 minutesmins
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: chocolate stout cake, Irish dessert, Pot O' Gold cake, semi homemade chocolate cake recipe, St. Patrick's Day desserts
1(8 ounce)container sour cream, at room temperature
3largeeggs, at room temperature
1cupstout beer (such as Guinness, OR 1 cup brewed coffee), at room temperature
1(3.4 ounce)package vanilla instant pudding mix
½cupvegetable or canola oil
1(15.25 ounce)package Devil’s Food cake mix (I used Betty Crocker)
¾cupmini semi-sweet chocolate chips
Special equipment: angel food cake pan or tube cake pan, large piping bag, Wilton 1A round piping tip, 6 plastic zip-top bags, 1 small 4-ounce plastic cup (optional)
For the cream cheese frosting and decorations:
1(8 ounce)block cream cheese, softened to room temperature
½cup(1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1teaspoonvanilla extract
2 ½ - 3cupspowdered sugar
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple food coloring gels (I used a mix of Americolor and Wilton brand)
Hershey’s Gold Nuggets
Instructions
For the chocolate cake:
Preheat oven to 350℉ and place a rack in the lowest third of the oven. Spray a tube cake pan with cooking spray. Sprinkle cocoa powder in the pan and rotate the pan while tapping the sides to coat the pan with the cocoa. Place the tube pan on a baking sheet and set aside.
Place the sour cream, eggs, beer (or coffee),, pudding mix, and oil in a large bowl. Use a hand mixer on low speed to combine thoroughly, about 45 seconds. Add the cake mix to the mixture and mix on medium-low speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of bowl as needed.
Use a rubber spatula to fold the chocolate chips into the cake batter. Evenly spread the batter into the prepared tube pan. Place the baking sheet in the oven with the cake pan on top and bake for 40-50 minutes until a wooden pick inserted into the center of the cake comes out with a wet crumb (but not coated in batter); the cake should be just set on top. Transfer to a wire rack and cool for 10 minutes.
Remove the cake from the bottom outer pan of the tube pan. Cool completely on a wire rack before removing the tube center and transferring to a serving plate or cake stand on a round piece of parchment paper.
For the cream cheese frosting and decorations:
Place the cream cheese, butter and vanilla, in the bowl of a stand mixer or a large bowl. Use the paddle attachment of the stand mixer or a hand mixer and cream on medium speed to combine, about 2 minutes, scraping down the bowl as needed. Add 2 ½ cups of powdered sugar. Mix on low speed just until combined, then increase to high speed for 1-2 minutes until the mixture is creamy and the consistency of peanut butter. If the frosting is too soft, add an additional ½ cup of powdered sugar.
Reserve about ¾ cup of the frosting for the rainbow drops. With the remaining frosting, place dollops of frosting onto the cooled cake, and spread just to cover the top of the cake. Place the plastic cup into the center hole of the cake and fill with the Hershey's gold nuggets.
Divide the ¾ cup of reserved frosting evenly into 6 small bowls. Use 1-2 (or more as needed) drops each of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple frosting to dye each container. Transfer each colored container of frosting to a small zip-top plastic bag. Snip a small hole in the bottom of the bag. Pipe each frosting color in a line on top of a sheet of plastic wrap, in the order of ROY G BV. Roll up the plastic wrap (see picture), then use scissors to snip off the excess plastic wrap on one end. Twist the excess wrap on the opposite end. Place the rainbow frosting log into a large piping bag fitted with a Wilton 1A round tip. You will need to put the cut end of the rainbow log at the end with the piping tip.
On a plate, pipe a small drop of rainbow frosting, pulling upwards quickly to taper the drop at the tip. Practice this a few times, then pipe the rainbow drops on the cake, or pipe however you like! I like to put my rainbow drops on the base of the cake and then around the gold nuggets on the top. Chill the cake for up to 4 hours before serving, serve chilled or at room temperature.
Notes
This cake can be made in advance up to 2 days before adding frosting. Store in the refrigerator and bring to room temperature before topping and serving.
Alternatively, you can freeze the cake (wrap in plastic and store in an airtight container) for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight, then bring to room temperature before topping and serving.