Claudia Fleming's Guinness Stout Ginger Cake

Published: Dec 16, 2024 by Stacey

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one serving of claudia fleming's guinness stout ginger cake with ginger ice cream

Claudia Fleming was the first pastry chef at the acclaimed Gramercy Tavern in New York City which opened in 1994. During her time at Gramercy, she received the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef in 2000. Her Guinness Stout Ginger Cake became something of a culinary legend from what I've read online. And let me tell you this: it is absolutely outstanding. Moist, dark, a little sweet, a tiny bit bitter from the stout and just so, so delicious.

claudia fleming's inspiration for this cake

In Claudia Fleming's fantastic cookbook, The Last Course, she pays tribute to Dona Abramson and Stuart Tarabour of the Bright Food Shop with this fragrant ginger cake. This was Claudia's favorite dessert from the Mexican fusion diner that was located in Chelsea, but closed back in 2007.

She adapted their recipe by adding more spices, fresh grated ginger and stout beer in place of water or coffee (what is traditionally used for gingerbread recipes). The result is this incredible, moist and not-too-sweet ginger cake which can be accompanied by a simple whipped cream, a cup of tea, a scoop of ice cream, or caramel blood oranges (also from The Last Course). I went with a scoop of ginger ice cream, caramel sauce and some orange zest. This seriously one of the best cakes I've ever eaten in my life!

overhead view of stout ginger cake with one portion on a plate served with ice cream and caramel sauce

guinness stout ginger cake: tips and tricks

Whenever I make someone else's recipe, I don't change a thing the first time I try it. Because the cake looks so beautiful in the bundt cake version, I started there. Ultimately, I went with a 9-inch cake pan which was slightly more ideal in my opinion. A couple of things:

If you use a bundt pan, non-stick cooking spray is not enough. You must, and I mean must, butter the pan or it will stick. I kind of knew the spray wasn't enough, but did it anyway to know for sure. When I flipped the cake after cooling, a portion of it stuck to the pan. Not the end of the world if it's for personal consumption. But if this was for a special occasion, the cake would be essentially ruined. BUTTER YOUR BUNDT PAN! Don't overthink this, just butter it.
Know your oven. This is pretty important. I know that my oven runs slightly hot. The bake time for the cake is one hour. It only needed around 50 minutes in my oven. In that extra 10 minutes in my oven - the bundt version of the cake dried out a bit. It was *almost* (like, just on the brink) burnt.
If you use a loaf pan, (and this advice comes from David Lebovitz' version - author of the fantastic My Paris Kitchen) only fill it ¾ of the way. You will have leftover batter - make a mini loaf with it to have as a snack on the side.
A 9-inch cake pan was perfect for me. I am somewhat partial to round cakes. I just love them! I traced the bottom of the pan and cut out a piece of round parchment paper. I used softened butter to butter the whole pan (bottom and sides). Then I placed the parchment circle in the bottom and buttered the top of that as well.
Butter. I can't stress enough that you should butter the pan you are using. And if you have parchment paper, use that for the bottom as well.

Stout ginger cake: feeds eight people

You can absolutely feed eight people with this recipe and might even be able to squeeze 10 slices out of it if you're a good slicer. 🙂 This makes it perfect for a dinner party or holiday celebration. Gingerbread seems to be associated with colder weather and as a great Christmas dessert option. I have to say though, this cake would be totally awesome any time of year.

close up look at guinness stout ginger cake with melty scoop of ice cream and caramel sauce

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easy steps to make guinness stout ginger cake

bringing molasses and guinness beer to a boil before adding the baking soda — *Bring molasses and Guinness to a boil*

after adding baking soda a lot of foam will appear — *Bring molasses and Guinness to a boil*

all dry ingredients in a bowl for stout ginger cake — *Add dry ingredients to a large bowl*

mix all dry ingredients for stout ginger cake — *Add dry ingredients to a large bowl*

eggs, white sugar, dark brown sugar in a bowl — *Add eggs and both sugars to a boil*

whisking eggs and sugar for Claudia Fleming's Guinness Stout Ginger Cake — *Add eggs and both sugars to a boil*

grating fresh ginger on a microplane — *Peel and grate fresh ginger*

adding parchment circle and buttering that too — *Peel and grate fresh ginger*

combining molasses and guinness with the eggs sugar and oil — *Add molasses and Guinness to eggs and sugar & mix*

adding the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients - half at a time — *Add molasses and Guinness to eggs and sugar & mix*

what it should look like after you mix all wet and dry ingredients together for stout ginger cake — *Whisk everything until it looks like this*

pouring cake batter into buttered back oan for claudia fleming's guinness stout ginger cake — *Whisk everything until it looks like this*

flip the cake and peel off parchment once cake has cooled — *Once cooled, flip cake and peel off parchment paper*

dusting powdered sugar on the cake — *Once cooled, flip cake and peel off parchment paper*

Claudia Fleming's Guinness Stout Ginger Cake

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Author: Stacey
Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
Yield: 8 portions 1x

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Description

Claudia Fleming’s Guinness Stout Ginger Cake is a moist, gingery, mouth-watering delight. You simply must try this.

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees at a time when it is appropriate to do so.
First bring your molasses and Guinness beer to a boil in a pot. You should use a tall pot for this. Once you bring it to a boil, turn heat off and add the baking soda. This will create a lot of foam – so that’s why the tall pot is good. My video shows this well. Remove to a back burner and let it cool back down to room temperature. All the foam should dissipate as well. This will take about 45 minutes.
Once the beer and molasses are back to room temperature and the foam is gone, proceed with the recipe. Add the flour, ground ginger, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and cardamom to a large bowl and whisk to combine.
In another bowl, add the eggs, white sugar, dark brown sugar and whisk together until well combined. Then whisk in the oil.
Peel and grate the fresh ginger.
Trace the bottom of the cake pan and cut out a parchment circle for the pan. Using softened butter, generously butter the bottom and sides of your cake pan (use paper towel). Add the parchment circle to the bottom and butter the top of the parchment circle as well. There are pan tips above in the blog post if you want to use a different pan.
Combine the Guinness and molasses mixture with the egg/sugar/oil mixture and mix well.
Whisk the wet mixture into the flour and spices, half at a time. Mix until well blended together. Then add the fresh ginger. Give it a good whisk here and make sure you break up that clump of ginger so it’s evenly distributed.
Pour batter into the buttered cake pan and bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes. Don’t open the oven until the end of cooking process or you risk the cake dropping a bit in the middle.