Michelle Darmody: How to make my popular chocolate stout cake

It is a recipe made famous by Nigella Lawson in the early 2000s

You can also make cute cupcakes with this recipe

Sat, 14 Mar, 2026 - 01:00

Michelle Darmody is a baking expert and writer, as well as an award-winning author. Michelle works across food education, sustainability and food policy and has a Doctorate in Culinary Arts.

This chocolate stout cake was one of the cakes I was most often asked to bake when I ran a bakery in Dublin. It has a wonderful mix of the slight savouriness from the malt of the stout, and the sweet creaminess of the icing.

It is a recipe made famous by Nigella Lawson in the early 2000s and has been adapted and tweaked by bakers ever since.