4 Creative Ways to Incorporate Irish Beer into Your St. Patrick’s Day Baked Goods

When it comes to celebratory foods and drinks to indulge in on St. Patrick’s Day, the mind probably goes to green beer on tap at the local bar or a plate of corned beef and cabbage. But those Irish beers like Guinness that you may or may not drink year-round can also be transformed from a boozy drink to an ingredient in your favorite baked goods. The idea of beer in breads and desserts like cakes might sound strange at first, but there are a multitude of reasons to add it to your next batch if you’re feeling lucky. 

There’s a chance that you’ve heard of Guinness cake, but the variety of Irish stouts in addition to Guinness as well as the wealth of popular Irish beer brands can lend themselves to many other baked goods, too. When you add beer to batters for desserts, specifically darker Irish beers like Guinness, the malty flavor will cut through the sweetness of ingredients like sugar and chocolate for an even richer result. 

Other types of beers will also pass on their unique flavors to balance the sweetness and flavor notes of baked goods. And, as a bonus, the carbonation in beer functions like a leavening agent to improve the texture of your baked goods by helping them rise. And if you’re concerned about the beer’s strength, there’s no reason to worry about the alcohol, because it should bake off in the oven.

Let’s talk about bread first, before we get to the sweet stuff. Bread must rise to the occasion, and the leavening aspect of beer will help facilitate that process. Then there’s the fact that the beer’s flavors will enhance the taste of bread, too. For dark Irish beers like Guinness or other stouts like Beamish, expect a more intense taste compared to lighter options. In most cases, the beer will replace the water as the liquid to achieve the dough’s consistency.

Try it out with our Irish beer bread created by recipe developer Christina Musgrave. In this original recipe, Musgrave encourages using Guinness beer. An important step is to use room temperature beer for baking bread, which helps emulsify all of the ingredients and results in the right texture. So, don’t forget to leave one of the bottles out of the fridge for your St. Patrick’s Day festivities. Add the beer after the dry ingredients like flour are mixed, and the rest is pretty much like any other traditional bread recipe — except your beer bread doesn’t need to rise in the traditional sense.

Cakes benefit from beer just like bread does, at least when it comes to rising and texture. Ingredients like baking soda usually help cakes rise, but the carbonation in your favorite Irish beer will promote the process. Depending on what kind of Irish beer goes into the batter, the flavor can either complement or contrast with the taste of the cake itself. A dark beer’s flavors can be similar to coffee or chocolate, so it will only benefit chocolate cakes specifically.

Case in point: Our Guinness cake with Irish cream and whiskey recipe. There are also the many Guinness chocolate cake recipes online that rely solely on the beer. For our cake, a ¼ cup of Guinness or similar stout beer will go into the cake. The other boozy components, such as the whiskey, go in the curd filling. And for an easier route, add a splash of stout beer to a boxed cake mix to elevate the dessert.

The next way to celebrate St. Paddy’s Day with Irish beer-infused baked goods is with homemade cookies. It’s all about the flavor, because the caramel, coffee, chocolate, and other hoppy flavor notes of the brew will meld well with the ingredients in your cookies. Mix-ins like brown sugar, chocolate chips, and browned butter will be enhanced from those beer flavors. It’s why a classic chocolate chip cookie benefits from a splash of beer in the dough. To maintain the proper consistency for the cookie dough, the beer will replace all or some of the common wet ingredients like milk or water. 

The beer will also act as a leavening agent like it does for other baked goods. For those who like iced cookies, you can also make a glaze with a splash of the beer. Lean into the flavors of your go-to Irish beer by using dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate. Test it out with this chocolate stout cookies with Irish buttercream recipe, which uses stout in the dough and Irish cream liqueur in the frosting. You can also try the beer in your favorite brownie recipe. As with cake, beer is the unexpected ingredient for richer chocolate cookies.

Since we mentioned frosting with those cookies, it’s the final recommendation to add some Irish flair to baked goods for the upcoming holiday. Icing is a good option for easily adding the flavors of an Irish beer to baked goods like cakes and cookies that you don’t want to alter too much. Make it according to your preferred recipe, then add the booze to the icing instead of the batter. Start with our classic vanilla buttercream frosting or classic cream cheese frosting recipes.

Perhaps the most important step to adding Irish beer to frosting is to pour in the right amount so it has the ideal consistency to spread on top of the cupcakes, cookies, or other baked goods you plan to celebrate with. It will only take 2 to 3 tablespoons of beer in enough frosting to turn out around 12 servings. After all of the ingredients are combined, stir the icing until you reach your desired consistency. Now, it’s time to get going with your St. Patrick’s Day festivities.