Baileys Irish Cream Chocolate Cake
St. Patrick's Day is almost here, and this AMAZING Baileys Irish Cream Cake is just the recipe that you need to celebrate with!
This scratch chocolate Irish cream layer cake recipe is ultra moist, soft, and flavorful. Paired with Bailey's Irish Cream mousse filling and Baileys buttercream frosting, it is out of this world!
We hope that you love this cake as much as we have. It's great for St. Patrick's Day, but you are going to want to make it year round. It is just that good!
Table of Contents
What is Baileys Irish Cream?
If you've never tried Baileys Irish Cream, it is a delicious Irish cream liqueur which consists of cream, cocoa, and Irish whiskey.
Baileys is considered the original Irish Cream, and has been produced in Ireland since the early 1970s. It is often combined with coffee or chocolate, but the options are endless!
How to Make Baileys Irish Cream Chocolate Cake
You can find the full, printable recipe at the bottom of this post. Here is a quick look at the steps!
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, grease and flour three 8x2 inch round pans
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside
- Wet Ingredients: In another bowl, add the buttermilk, Baileys Irish Cream, oil and vanilla extract. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your mixer, add the softened butter and mix at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and continue to mix on medium speed 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy.
- Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears.
- Next, with the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry and 2 of wet).
- Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Let cool 5 to 10 minutes before turning out the cake layers.
Baileys Mousse Filling
Our flavorful Irish Cream filling is what we call a mock mousse, as it is really just a super quick and easy combination of vanilla pudding, heavy cream, and Irish cream, but the texture and flavor are fantastic!
Assembling the Cake
Once it's time to assemble the cake layers, place the first layer on the cake base or pedestal. I like to pipe a dam of buttercream about ¼ inch from the edge of the cake layers whenever I'm working with soft fillings.
After doing this, I filled in with our Irish cream mousse. Then I placed the next layer on and so on.
Frosting the Baileys Cake
For this cake, we used Baileys Irish Cream Buttercream, which is a take on our usual vanilla buttercream recipe but with a little Irish cream added in.
I can't believe the amount of flavor just 2 tablespoons added! Of course, if you'd like it stronger, adjust to your liking. ;0)
Crumb Coat: After settling the tier, I filled in any gaps between layers with buttercream and then applied a crumb coat. (A crumb coat is a very thinly applied layer of frosting.)
Chilling: Next, I chilled the tier in the freezer for about 15 minutes to firm things up before going back in with a second layer of frosting. I used a hot bench scraper to smooth out the frosting for a clean finish.
Ganache Drip
There's nothing like a ganache drip to add a little drama to a cake, not to mention an extra layer of deliciousness!
We made our ganache the quick and easy way- in the microwave! We used 1:1 ratio of chocolate to cream. Just be careful not to overheat.
Applying the Ganache Drip
Once it had cooled to a good dripping consistency, we loaded the ganache into a bag with the tip snipped away and applied it around the edge of the cake.
Then, we added additional ganache to the top of the cake to cover the top. I love the look!
**I demonstrate applying a ganache drip in a quick video which you can find here: Ganache Drip Recipe
I chilled the cake briefly in the refrigerator before piping buttercream stars around the top with a Wilton 8B tip, and then added dark chocolate chips into each one.
Looking for more "boozy" cake recipes?
If you love cakes with a little extra cheer, we have more delicious alcohol-infused recipes to share with you!
Don't miss our roundup of Favorite Boozy Cakes, but here is a quick rundown of our most popular!:
- Piña Colada Cake
- Margarita Cake with Tequila Lime Buttercream
- Tiramisu Cake
- Pink Champagne Cake (we have both scratch and doctored cake mix recipes)
- Champagne and Strawberries Cake
- Chocolate Kahlua Cake
- Black Forest Cake
You can also find a roundup of our FAVORITE Chocolate Cake Recipes here! : The BEST Chocolate Cake Recipes!
You may also be interested in our Roundup of the Best Cakes for St. Patrick's Day!
Thanks so much for stopping by! If you try our Chocolate Irish Cream Cake recipe, we would love to hear what you think. Also, make sure to check out our full collection of favorite cake and frosting recipes in our Cake Recipes Section.
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Baileys Irish Cream Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake Layers
- 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, softened (170g) (Do not microwave)
- 2 cups sugar (400g)
- 3 large eggs, room temperature (If in a hurry, you can place the eggs in a bowl of warm water.)
- 2 cups all purpose flour (242g)
- ¾ cups unsweetened cocoa powder (measure the sift) (69g)
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder (7g)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda (6g)
- 1 ¼ cups buttermilk (303g)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (8g)
- ¼ cup Baileys Irish Cream (52g)
- ½ cup vegetable oil (I use canola oil) (104g)
For the Irish Cream Filling
- 1 small box instant Vanilla pudding 3.4 oz (96g) we used Jello Brand pudding (we like to sift pudding)
- 1 ¾ heavy cream or whipping cream (406g)
- ¼ cup Baileys Irish Cream
Irish Cream Buttercream
- 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened (339g)
- 9 cups powdered sugar (sift then measure) (1035g) You can reduce this amount if you would like.
- 1 teaspoon salt (preferably popcorn salt or fine grain salt) (6g)
- 2 Tablespoons Baileys Irish Cream (more if you like a stronger flavor) (30g)
- ¼ cup milk (60g)
For the Ganache Drip
- 6 oz Chocolate (Semi-sweet or Dark) We used Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate (171g)
- 6 oz Heavy Cream (171g)
Instructions
For the Cake Layers
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, grease and flour three 8x2 inch round pans
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside
- In another bowl, add the buttermilk, Baileys Irish Cream, oil and vanilla. Set aside
- In the bowl of your mixer, add the softened butter and mix at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and continue to mix on medium speed 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy.
- Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears.
- Alternately, add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry and 2 of wet).
- Do not mix above medium speed or over mix the batter.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Let cool 5 to 10 minutes and turn out of pan.
For the Irish Cream Filling
- Chilling the bowl and beaters will shorten the mixing time. Use a hand mixer a stand mixer with whisk attachment, or you can whisk by hand.
- Combine the dry pudding mix, heavy cream and Baileys Irish Cream in a mixing bowl.
- Begin on low speed until everything is well combined. Increase speed and mix until the mixture is thick.If mixing by hand, simply whisk rapidly for a couple of minutes or until mixture is thick.
- Refrigerate until ready to use. Cakes with this filling should be refrigerated until 1 to 2 hours before serving.If you are making the filling in advance, I think it would be fine refrigerated 5 days.
For the Irish Cream Buttercream
- Cream the softened butter until smooth. Add approximately half of the powdered sugar, most of the milk and Irish Cream.
- Mix at medium speed until the powdered sugar is incorporated. Add remaining powdered sugar and milk. Mix at medium speed another 3 to 5 minutes, or longer.
- Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl occasionally. The mixture will become very smooth. Lower the mixing speed near the end of mixing, this will reduce air bubbles in the buttercream.
For the Ganache Drip
- Place your chocolate into a microwave safe bowl.
- Pour heavy cream over the chocolate and place in the microwave for 1 minute. (Times may vary, see our note below).
- Remove and stir. Microwave for 30 seconds more and when the chocolate has melted almost completely, allow it to sit for 1 minute more before stirring. Stir until you've reached a silky smooth consistency.
- *Microwave times may vary. If you are making a smaller amount of ganache, you will reduce the microwave time. If your chocolate hasn't melted after the 1 ½ minutes recommended in the instructions, simply microwave in small 10-15 second increments until it has nearly completely melted. Let sit one minute, then stir until smooth.
- Allow finished ganache to cool until it is a good consistency for dripping. (You can test this on the inside of your bowl. If it moves too quickly down, let it thicken a little more.
Assembly of Cake
- When it is time to assemble your cake, place the first layer on the pedestal or cake base. Pipe a ring/dam around the edge of the layer (about ¼ inch from the edge). You could apply the dam using a piping bag with the tip snipped away, or you can use a tip 12. Then, apply your mousse filling within the dam and repeat the steps.
- Frost the cake with a crumb coat, chill if necessary to firm things up, then follow with final coat of frosting. I use a heated bench scraper to smooth everything out.
- To apply the ganache drip, load the ganache into the piping bag (it shouldn't be hot). Snip the tip of the piping bag, add apply the drip to your *chilled* tier. Chilling the tier first helps the drips not to go all the way down. I like to add the drip around the edge of the cake first, then spread additional ganache on top.
- I piped stars of Irish cream buttercream around the top edge of the cake using a 6B tip, and placed a chocolate chip into each one. I also used a tip 21 to create a piped border with a braided look around the base. Decorate however you like! ;0)
Sounds delish! :-)
Using pudding mix - this is not available in UK
Could custard powder be used instead of pudding mix?
I am sorry but we have not used custard powder so I cannot be sure it would work with this recipe. Our pudding mix (Jello brand) is a powder. It is not a cooked pudding.
Ok thanks…unfortunately we don’t have “pudding mix” in the uk. Your cakes are beautiful by the way x
Made this cake (2/3 the recipe for a 6" version) and it was AMAZING! I did add salt to the cake layers portion of the recipe, and it was perfect. The Bailey's flavor really comes through, especially after a few days in the fridge.
Thanks for posting. My husband made me promise to make this cake for his birthday in August.
Cheers!
Hi Jackie, Your cake is beautiful!! I am so happy you and your husband enjoyed it. Thank you for your nice comments.
Everyone thought this cake was amazing! The Baileys taste was Not overpowering- very suttle. The only changes I made were:
•The Baileys vanilla buttercream frosting recipe called for 9 CUPS of confectioner’s sugar- which I thought would be too much so I found another online vanilla buttercream recipe that had less sugar and no Baileys and it was fine.
•I used 4oz. Semi-sweet bakers chocolate and 4oz. Heavy whipping cream. It was perfect.
•I wasn’t able to decorate the bottom or tops with the extra vanilla frosting because I was late for the party. Lol
Will most definitely make again!!
Thank you!
Hi Silvana, Thanks for the picture, your cake looks wonderful. I am so happy everyone enjoyed it!
I am not a cake decorator, and I don't usually bake because, by changing my way of eating, I *reversed* full-blown type 2 diabetes. However, for the holiday weekend celebration, I made a 4-layer 6-inch version of Bailey's Irish Cream Cake, but with cocoa in the frosting (I like chocolate.) I had a disaster with it. It wasn't a problem with the recipe; I filled the layers, assembled the cake, and applied a crumb coating. Then, when I went to put the crumb-coated cake into the refrigerator to let the frosting set up, I took my attention off the cake for a second to open the fridge door, the base tilted just enough to send the cake upside down onto the microwave cart. The top layer broke into several pieces. Then, the whole cake started to tilt over, and I could see that unless I stopped it, it was going to end up on the floor, so I stuck out my hand to keep it from falling off the microwave cart. Of course, that completely made a mess of the crumb coat. (If I could have gotten a video, and sent it to a popular TV show, they'd probably air the video and send me a T-shirt.)
I scraped together as much broken cake layer and frosting as I could, and used frosting to glue the cake layer together as best I could. What I could not do successfully was make the cake as straight as it had been before the disaster. Nevertheless, It came out looking better than I had any way of expecting. It's a "leaning tower of cake," but at least it looks like a decorated cake (sort of.) Plus, it tastes *amazing.* Thank you for this recipe!
Hi Carla, Yes, I wish there had been a video of this funny event and how to saved your cake. Reading about all your cake went through, it looks amazing! I'm happy you could piece it back together and serve your dessert. Thank you for posting and I'm glad you enjoyed the cake.
hello am peter from mtl. que. in canada i must say i have uesed some of your cake recipes with my young students and the loved
the cakes. am a chef by trade but i do alot of d
essert for my young lads and the love them. you have my e mail but i do that get everything you post i think. thank you peter.p.s. my young lads are my old folks that i work for.
Could you use sour cream instead of buttermilk with this recipe?
Hi could you tell me what this is called in the UK please
(1 small box instant Vanilla pudding)
Made this cake for my daughter for her 30th b day . I modified the recipe . I used banana filling instead of vanilla because she loves bananas!
It came out delicious . Next time I’m going to use a
whip cream frosting. ????
i made this cake recently. every single person who tired it, did nothing but compliment on how great it was. one friend said to me " this is the best thing i have tasted in 10 years".
i had to jump back on here again today. another friend who who tried the cake on my first run...loved it so much...want me to make it for his sons birthday.
this cake is fantastic.
thank you for sharing this recipe.
ashley