Baileys Irish Cream Chocolate Cake with Whipped Cream Frosting

Here’s an Irish Cream Chocolate Cake that is wonderfully tender, moist, and ultra chocolatey. The whipped cream frosting is light and fluffy, the perfect balance.

Amy Dong
★★★★★
15 ratings
79 comments
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baileys irish cream chocolate cake baileys cake, irish cream cake — Irish Cream Chocolate Cake with Whipped Cream Frosting

Bailey’s Irish Cream Cake with Whipped Cream Frosting

Despite Minnesota’s notorious “spring” consisting of an eclectic mixture of ice-snow-rain-mud….I super-like March. Tons of my family and friends celebrate their birthdays this month.

For my own birthday, the boys bought me enough dark chocolate to [hopefully] last me until summer. I’ve been having a blast enjoying all my freebies for coffee, ice cream, and slices of cake. All week, we’ve been tasting a variety of chocolate cake recipes from favorite bakeries. because birthday week and it’s fully legit. If we’re going to indulge, let’s do it right.

This Baileys Irish Cream Chocolate Cake. It’s notably better than all the other chocolate cakes we’ve been tasting. There’s something quite magical and irresistible about this ultra tender, moist, chocolatey cake infused with Baileys Irish Cream. Frosted with whipped cream frosting. Every single luscious bite of this Baileys Irish Cream Chocolate Cake is blissfully worthwhile.

By the way, the concept of a birthday week is a thing. One single day isn’t enough time to pay tribute to the awesome moment our favorite people entered the world. Which is why these Soft Funfetti Cookies and Easy Chocolate Ice Cream are also on tap.

What makes this cake extra moist and tender

We use oil in place of butter, which provides supreme moisture to this Irish cream cake. Either olive oil or coconut oil work wonderfully, without leaving any distinct flavor to the cake itself.
Buttermilk is an acidic ingredient that tenderizes gluten, giving baked goods a softer texture.
The Irish cream is a flavorful substitute for milk, providing extra richness to the cake.

secret to intensifying chocolate flavor

Fresh, unsweetened, 100% cocoa powder is classic for chocolate cakes
The real secret is coffee. Not coffee you’ll undoubtedly be sipping with this cake, but coffee you’ll actually add to the batter.
Brew a cup of extra strong coffee (decaf is fine) and let it cool to at least lukewarm. You won’t taste any coffee in the cake itself. Rather, the coffee intensifies the chocolate flavor, like a chocolate booster.

Stabilized Whipped Cream

This stabilized whipped cream yields a fluffy light frosting; the perfect accompaniment to any rich chocolate cake.

Use stabilized the whipped cream frosting so that you can frost the cake ahead of time and not worry about it becoming runny. Stabilized whipped cream is a cake’s best friend and we use it on every dessert possible, from Flourless Chocolate Cake to Tender Yellow Cake with Chocolate Whipped Cream Frosting (yes, there’s a chocolate version!)

Stabilized whipped cream holds its shape at moderate room temperature all day long. You can even frost the cake and keep it covered/chilled for a couple of days without fear.

More to Bake and Eat:

Try this Easy apple cake, made in one bowl:

Baileys Irish Cream Chocolate Cake with Whipped Frosting

★★★★★

5 from 15 reviews

Here’s an Irish Cream Chocolate Cake that is wonderfully tender, moist, and ultra chocolatey. The whipped cream frosting is light and fluffy, the perfect balance.

Prep Time: 20 mins
Cook Time: 25 mins
Total Time: 45 mins

Yield: 12 1x

Ingredients

Scale

For the Cake:

1 large egg
2/3 cup olive oil or melted coconut oil
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup Baileys Irish Cream
1 cup very strong black coffee (decaf is fine)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 cup 100% unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp table salt
1 TB baking soda

For the Frosting:

2 cups heavy whipping cream, very cold
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup Baileys Irish cream, very cold
2 tsp unflavored gelatin (Knox) dissolved in 2 TB water, in small glass bowl

Optional Garnish: chocolate curls or chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F with rack on lower middle position. Generously grease and flour two 9″ nonstick cake pans along the bottom and sides. Gently tap off excess flour; set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the egg, oil, buttermilk, Baileys, and coffee. Whisk until fully incorporated; set aside.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, salt, and baking soda until well combined. Add dry mixture to the bowl with wet ingredients. Use hand whisk to gently stir mixture until no streaks/lumps of dry flour remain (some tiny lumps are fine.) Batter will be runny.
Divide batter evenly between greased/floured cake pans, ensuring that pans have even distribution of batter. Bake 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out with a few tender crumbs attached. Let cool completely in pans.
Meanwhile, make the Frosting: Place a metal mixing bowl and beaters into fridge/freezer to chill 5 minutes. Add cold heavy cream, powdered sugar, and cold Baileys to the chilled bowl. Beat on medium-high until frosting holds together with stiff peaks.
If dissolved gelatin is no longer liquid, microwave it for 5-10 seconds just until it becomes a lukewarm liquid (not hot.) Give the gelatin a stir and very gradually drizzle into the frosting bowl as you continue to beat on medium-high (try to drizzle gelatin into the beaters so it gets fully blended into the frosting. Cover and chill until ready to frost.
Once cakes in pan have fully cooled, run a thin knife around the edges to loosen; carefully remove first cake from pan, and turn it onto serving plate. Frost with half of the frosting. Top with second round cake and remaining frosting on top. If desired, garnish with chocolate curls or chocolate chips. Cake keeps well covered in fridge.

Notes

If needed, pound hard on back of inverted cake pan to release cakes once cooled.

This cake’s texture and flavor become even better the next day, so if you want to make it completely the day before, including frosting/assembling, just cover airtight and chill finished caked until ready to serve.

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