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A two-layer chocolate fudge cake with Baileys buttercream, and Baileys truffles. The MOST delicious Baileys cake ever!

Baileys cake

One thing that I have been craving for ages is something Baileys themed. I posted my Baileys cupcakes recipe nearly two years ago, and its always been a favourable treat of mine. However, I wanted to make something that was a little bit more of a showstopper! Therefore, I decided to make a cake version of the Cupcakes. OH BOY, I wonder why I haven’t posted this beauty sooner!

I decided to merge my Baileys cupcakes with my chocolate fudge cake sponge as its just so dreamy. I wanted something very fudgey, delicious and rich to be able to merge with the wonderful Baileys buttercream. The chocolate sponge itself uses a coffee/dark chocolate base to create the BEST chocolate fudge cake sponge ever.

Honestly, its delicious. You don’t need a massive slice of it, so be warned! However, when you marry it with the creamy Baileys buttercream, it just creates a sensation of heaven. I made this into a Christmas recipe, as Baileys is very Christmas themed to me, but its suitable for a year round treat!

Baileys

So, Baileys is one of those things that you probably either love or hate. I took some Baileys treats into work recently, and it was a controversial one… however, when its in an edible form, nearly everyone loves it! I can understand it in a way, as even when I was younger I just couldn’t hack drinking Baileys.

I adore making a Baileys hot chocolate these days, and even in other recipes like my no-bake Baileys cheesecake and my Baileys truffles, I just LOVEEEE it. For this particular recipe, I decided to use some shop bought Baileys truffles as I was a little pushed for time, but you can easily decorate it with some of my homemade Baileys truffles!

Adaptable recipe!

To be honest, its such an easily adaptable recipe you’ll adore it. I’ve tried this with the pumpkin spice Baileys, salted caramel Baileys and the chocolate Baileys and they all worked perfectly. I hope you all love this lil’ showstopper as much as I, and my taste testers did! Enjoy! x

Baileys Cake!

A two-layer chocolate fudge cake with Baileys buttercream, and Baileys truffles. The MOST delicious Baileys cake ever!
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Category: Dessert
Type: Cake
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Decorating Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes
Servings: 15 People
Author: Jane's Patisserie

Ingredients

Cake Ingredients

  • 225 g dark chocolate
  • 225 g unsalted butter
  • 1 tbsp ground coffee (instant)
  • 175 g plain flour
  • 25 g cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 200 g golden caster sugar
  • 200 g light brown sugar
  • 4 medium eggs
  • 75 ml buttermilk

Baileys Frosting

  • 250 g unsalted butter (room temp)
  • 600 g icing sugar
  • 90-120 ml Baileys

Decorations

  • Baileys truffles
  • Sprinkles

Instructions

Cake

  • Preheat your oven to 160C/140C fan and grease & line two 8″/20cm cake tins – leave to the side.
  • In a heatproof bowl, microwave the dark chocolate & butter until melted – mine takes two minutes! Pour the coffee granules into 125ml boiling water and mix – add the coffee to the chocolate/butter mix and stir well until smooth!
  • In a separate large bowl add the plain flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, golden caster sugar, and light brown sugar and mix well so the ingredients are all mixed with each other well!
  • Mix the eggs with the buttermilk – add the chocolate mix & the egg mix to the dry ingredients and stir together, try not to over mix it – it should be thick but runny when finished and no flour lumps!
  • Pour the mixture into the two tins and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes (can take a little longer in some ovens) once baked leave to cool in the tin and remove afterwards, or leave for 10-15 minutes and cool on a wire rack for a softer cake.

Frosting

  • Beat the butter with an electric mixer for a couple of minutes to loosen it – gradually beat in the icing sugar until well combined, and add in the Baileys a spoonful at a time whilst beating.
  • Beat for 5 minutes until a silky lovely buttercream texture is produced. Be careful with adding all the Baileys at the same time as it might split – I used 7 tbsp.

Decoration

  • Get your first cake, and pipe on some buttercream using a 2d closed star piping tip and then add your second cake. Repeat the process, and decorate the top layer with some extra swirls of the buttercream.
  • Sprinkle on some sprinkles, and add on some Baileys truffles! Enjoy!

Notes

  • This recipe does contain coffee, but don’t fear, you can’t taste the coffee. I still 100% recommend including it in the recipe. You MUST also use dark chocolate in the sponge, otherwise the mixture will be too thin.
  • You can of course use other Irish Cream liqueurs, but I much prefer Baileys! Also, try some of the other flavoured Baileys as they all work the same!
  • This chocolate sponge is originally based on a recipe from BBC Good Food. The Baileys buttercream came from my Baileys Cupcakes post!
  • This cake will last in an airtight container for 3 days!

Find my other recipes on my Recipes Page!

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J x

© Jane’s Patisserie. All images & content are copyright protected. Do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words and credit me, or link back to this post for the recipe.

40 Comments

  1. Nonbaker on October 17, 2022 at 9:14 am

    5 stars
    For someone that literally hates baking and has a very low success rate in the kitchen, I was really chuffed and surprised to find this worked perfectly, I would definitely make this again and recommend anyone to give it a go.Actually iced it whilst frozen which seemed to stop any crumb disasters. Put a lot less Bailey’s in then the recepie said though…3tbsp was sufficient.

  2. Emily on October 25, 2021 at 3:04 pm

    Hey! Was hoping to potentially use the baileys buttercream one of my wedding cake layers. I have made the chocolate fudge cake before and it is so delicious but for the wedding cake I was thinking of using a normal chocolate sponge as I though it might be a little more stable. Do you know if this icing could be used in the sponge layers, decorated (crumb coat, ganache and buttercream on outside) and then frozen? I hope this makes sense! Thanks so much in advance 🙂

    • Jane's Patisserie on November 8, 2021 at 10:24 am

      Hiya! Yes this should work absolutely fine! I also agree on using a regular chocolate sponge instead, good call! Hope this helps x



  3. Charn on August 7, 2021 at 1:35 pm

    Hey. How would I convert the recipe to make a 6 inch cake? I’m going to use two 6×4 inch tins and cut them into 4 layers.

    Also, for the ground coffee, do you have a recommendation or anything? I’m looking on Tesco and I’m unsure what I’m actually looking for as it says no results for instant ground coffee. Hope you can help 🙂

    • Shannon on November 28, 2022 at 3:56 pm

      Hi Jane 😊 I’ve got to make a baileys cake for my MIL birthday in a few weeks. I want to do it as a 3 layer & cover it in buttercream, just wondering if I used vanilla buttercream to cover the cake would this go well with the baileys frosting in-between the layers? Hope this makes sense 😊 xx



    • Jane's Patisserie on November 28, 2022 at 4:03 pm

      Yes absolutely, sounds yummy! Hope this helps! x



  4. Tracy on April 7, 2021 at 9:49 pm

    Hi Jane,

    Can I use this icing all over the cake..similar to your drop cakes? Or is it not the right consistency?

    Thanks.

    • Jane's Patisserie on April 9, 2021 at 11:40 am

      Hey! It is bit risky because the baileys buttercream is softer than others xx



  5. Lizzie on March 17, 2021 at 10:07 pm

    Hi Jane I plan to make this on Friday however have not managed to get hold of golden caster sugar. What would you recommend, using caster sugar in its place or a mix of caster sugar and brown sugar? I know that you can make sugars from other sugars, but I wanted to know what you thought works best for this recipe.
    Thank you. Lizzie x

  6. Luke Clarkson on March 13, 2021 at 3:35 pm

    3 stars
    Tastes really good. But I had to leave the cake in for 20 mins longer and it still wasn’t cooked. Also you have to wait for it to cool for a lot longer than 15 minutes because otherwise the icing melts. Tasted proper nice but it’s left me incredibly irritated.

    • Jodie on March 30, 2021 at 7:36 pm

      She means leave it to cool in the tins for 15 mins and then turn on to a wire rack for the remaining time until it cools completely.
      No cake will cool in 15 mins.
      It takes hours.
      Hope this helps you.



  7. Lee howell on February 19, 2021 at 7:41 am

    Hi Jane I can’t find buttermilk anywhere is there anything I could substitute for it your recipes are amazing thanks

    • Jane's Patisserie on February 19, 2021 at 9:22 am

      You can make your own! You need whole milk (must be full fat to work), and add lemon juice! x



  8. Kate OMeara on February 2, 2021 at 3:13 pm

    5 stars
    Hi Jane, I was wondering if I could I make this into three layers instead of two What measurements would i use??

    • Jane's Patisserie on February 2, 2021 at 8:03 pm

      The easiest way is to use another half of the recipe! x



  9. louise on November 27, 2020 at 3:21 pm

    Cake drops in the middle, how can I get it to not drop?

    • Jane's Patisserie on November 27, 2020 at 3:58 pm

      That means its under-baked or the oven door was opened too early x



  10. Heidi on November 23, 2020 at 10:20 pm

    Hi Jane,
    Could you tell me how to alter the ingredients to make enough for 3x 8″ cake tins please. I love the sound of this recipe but would like to make a slightly taller version.
    TIA
    X

    • Jane's Patisserie on November 24, 2020 at 10:27 am

      Hey! I would just use another half of the recipe, so 1.5x in total and then bake into three tins! x



  11. Peter Jones on November 21, 2020 at 3:15 pm

    5 stars
    I just tried to leave a review and it didn’t, so I apologise if I’ve doubled up, I love this cake, it came out perfect although I did it a little longer than it said, I just took it out when the wood skewer came clean from the middle but definitely don’t overlook it as it’s awesome and fudgy, my friends and family were battling for pieces of it. I also used slightly over the recommended amount of Baileys and it tasted amazing. Great recipe, many thanks x

  12. Peter Jones on November 21, 2020 at 3:08 pm

    5 stars
    Amazing cake for a real treat, I wouldn’t leave it in too long as it’s beautiful when a bit more fudgy, as soon as the wood skewer came out clean I removed it, I also added a touch more over the top end of bailies. My friends and family were fighting over this cake, and I’m just baking another now. Can’t speak highly enough of this recipe, thank you. X

  13. Julie Jankowski on August 30, 2020 at 2:54 pm

    Hi Jane,would you just mix this by hand or use a mixer?This looks fab and I want to use it to enter a works bake off competition.
    Thanks
    Julie

    • Jane's Patisserie on August 30, 2020 at 3:58 pm

      For the cake, just your hand for sure! x



  14. Jade on May 26, 2020 at 10:08 pm

    I’m going to try this cake out, could you potentially put baileys in the sponge also as you do on the cupcakes or would you not advise?
    Thanks!! 🙂 x

    • Jane's Patisserie on May 27, 2020 at 9:52 am

      Hey! For this one I wouldn’t – this one is a different type of sponge so you don’t want the baileys!! xx



  15. Jacqui Tekagac on December 29, 2019 at 7:35 am

    Hi Jane, Can you use Camp coffee in this cake please?

    • Jane's Patisserie on December 29, 2019 at 8:50 am

      I prefer to use real coffee with the water to get the correct bake!



  16. Dawn on October 20, 2019 at 8:53 am

    5 stars
    Hi what is buttermilk and where do I buy it from I’m in the UK

    • Jane's Patisserie on October 20, 2019 at 7:58 pm

      You buy it in the supermarket, usually near the milk/cream!



  17. Lauren on December 17, 2018 at 4:38 pm

    I was wondering if this would go well with a vanilla cake instead? Have a family who prefers vanilla sponge. If so, have you got a recipe for a vanilla sponge? Thanks!

    • Jane's Patisserie on December 17, 2018 at 5:41 pm

      I do, check out my victoria sponge recipe!



  18. Jenni on April 7, 2018 at 7:51 am

    Just made this cake, not cooked in the centre and crust on top.

    Buttercream separated after applied to cake.

    • Jane's Patisserie on April 8, 2018 at 12:32 pm

      If it wasn’t cooked in the centre it needed longer in the oven, and it shouldn’t have separated unless the cake wasn’t cooled properly.. buttercream can’t separate by itself x



  19. JULIE GUNTRIP on March 20, 2018 at 3:41 pm

    CAN THE SPONGE BE FROZEN AHEAD OF TIME

  20. Suzanne Doherty on December 24, 2017 at 1:04 pm

    I’ve just made this cake. It’s cooked in the centre and still uncooked around the edges. On about 42 minutes so far. It’s got an unusual crust on top in the centre. I’m not stranger to making cakes but this is odd :/

    • Jane's Patisserie on December 24, 2017 at 4:58 pm

      That does sound a little odd! Particularly that its cooked around the edges and not the middle… what was the outcome? x



  21. Carolyn on November 20, 2017 at 5:28 pm

    This looks so good, definitely one I’ll need to try making for my family over the festive season!

    Carolyn x
    Faithfully Carolyn

  22. Tanya on November 20, 2017 at 8:45 am

    Going on the Xmas treat list

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