Chocolate Irish Cream Cake is made with a generous dose of Irish cream and topped with a fluffy, pudding-based frosting. This grown-up dessert is moist, rich, and oh-so-boozy!
Irish Cream Cake
Chocolate Irish Cream Cake is not the type of chocolate cake that’s served at children’s birthday parties, folks!
Saint Patrick’s day will be here before you know it, and if you can’t resist chocolate and boozy cocktails, you’ll get the best of both worlds with this decadent Irish Cream Cake.
The indulgent dessert consists of rich cake and fluffy frosting that’s infused with Homemade Irish Cream, and a piece of it will definitely get you buzzing! Needless to say, it’s definitely an adults-only type of cake; don’t let the kiddos get into this one!
This Irish Cream Cake recipe is a poke cake and calls for ½ cup of booze right in the batter. Once the sheet cake is baked, holes are poked in it so that a mixture of sweetened condensed milk and (more!) Irish cream can sink in and get absorbed throughout the whole thing.
Then there’s the frosting, made smooth and silky with a blend of heavy cream, powdered sugar, vanilla pudding mix, and — you guessed it —more Irish cream! Yep, there’s plenty of the good stuff in here!
Have you ever had a tough time deciding whether you should mix up a cocktail or go straight for the chocolate? With Irish Cream Cake, you can do both at once, multitasking at its finest if I do say so myself!
Whether you’re planning a Saint Patrick’s Day bash or a simple dinner with your better half, nothing says, “Let’s celebrate!” like a spiked chocolate cake.
This cake recipe is perfect for just about any special occasion. I even brought a similar recipe to our family’s last 4th of July barbecue last year, and it was a huge hit.
If you want to feel “the luck of the Irish,” try baking a moist, rich Irish Cream Cake that’s drenched in boozy goodness. Whether you share it at a party or savor a piece after a long day at work, you won’t regret indulging in this chocolatey treat!
More St Patty’s Day Recipes:
Pin this Poke Cake Recipe for Later!
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Things You’ll Need For This Recipe:
Watch How To Make This Cake In The Video Below!
Chocolate Irish Cream Poke Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 box Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix
- 3.4 oz. package Jell-O Instant Vanilla Pudding
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup sour cream
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup homemade Irish Cream
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups mini chocolate chips
Liquid
- 1/2 cup Homemade Irish Cream
- 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
Frosting
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 1/2 cup Homemade Irish Cream
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1/3 cup Jell-O Instant Vanilla Pudding
Optional
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Spray a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with cooking spray and set aside.
- In a large bowl or stand mixer, combined all of the cake ingredients until fully mixed and pour into the prepared pan. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until toothpick comes clean from center of the cake. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.
Liquid
- In a medium bowl, combine the Kahlua and sweetened condensed milk until combined.
- Used the hand of a wooden spoon or chopsticks, poke holes all over the cake.
- Pour liquid mixture over the cake.
Frosting
- Beat all ingredients in a large bowl or stand mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Frost cake and top with chocolate sprinkles if desired.
Jessica Fasano Formicola says
I LOVE these flavors! Irish Cream in cake sounds like perfection!
Rebecca Hubbell says
Thank you!
Pam says
This looks so moist and delicious. I adore Irish Creme, but rarely cook with it. (love those sprinkles too!)
Rebecca Hubbell says
I love baking with it, it has such a great flavor!
Allison - Celebrating Sweets says
This looks SO good! I want a big slice right this second!
Deepika says
This cake is a perfection. The sprinkles look so cute. I can have a slice of it.
Stephanie@ApplesforCJ says
This cake looks so incredibly moist. I love the addition of Irish cream in this. Looks perfect.
Albert Bevia says
First off…this cake looks stunning, it looks like it would be on the cover of a food magazine!!! seriously though, this is beautiful, love that generous dose of Irish cream
Erica says
This looks so yummy!! I would love to make this and bring it to the office to share with my coworkers BUT I have a couple concerns. Is there enough alcohol in this cake to get us intoxicated (kind of a no no for our office)? Also along the same line, two of my coworkers and myself are pregnant, would this be too much alcohol for us? I hope not because now I have an uncontrollable craving to devour this cake!
Rebecca Hubbell says
Hi Erica, there isn’t enough alcohol to get anyone drunk (unless they are the whole cake), there’s 1.5 cups of Irish Cream in the cake and 1 cup of that isn’t baked at all. So you definitely shouldn’t consume it if you are pregnant since the whiskey is strong. However, you get get a very similar flavor without the alcohol by using Bailey’s Irish Cream Coffee Creamers. These are non-alcoholic and can be for on the coolers with the other flavored creamers at your local grocery store. I hope this helps!
Susan says
Can you bake this in a 10X15 pan?
Rebecca Hubbell says
Yes can, but you will have a thinner cake and frosting layer 🙂
Kathy says
Recipe looks delicious! Do you think this recipe could make cupcakes? I know the “poke” and fill part might be difficult, but I’m wanting to try it. What do you think?
Rebecca Hubbell says
Hi Kathy, yes, these can be made into cupcakes. This chocolate cake recipe should make about 24 cupcakes, mix as directed and fill cupcake liners with 1/4 cups of batter and bake for 18 – 22 minutes. However, with the cupcakes, you may want to lower the amount of filling as it could make the cupcakes too soft, I would recommend using a toothpick or a skewer to poke holes in the cupcakes and maybe only drizzling a tablespoon or so over the top of each one 🙂
Lindsey says
How could this be transformed into cupcakes? About how long to bake/ how many would I end up with?
Rebecca Hubbell says
Hi Lindsey, yes, these can be made into cupcakes. This chocolate cake recipe should make about 24 cupcakes, mix as directed and fill cupcake liners with 1/4 cups of batter and bake for 18 – 22 minutes. However, with the cupcakes, you may want to lower the amount of filling as it could make the cupcakes too soft, I would recommend using a toothpick or a skewer to poke holes in the cupcakes and maybe only drizzling a tablespoon or so over the top of each one 🙂
Carol says
I’m a little confused. Does the recipe use Irish Cream, or Kahlua? To my way of thinking, those are 2 very different animals. I would love to make this for a St. Pat’s get-together, but want to be sure of the ingredients first.
Rebecca Hubbell says
Just Irish Cream.
Tanya says
The recipe refers to homemade Irish cream , not sure I understand this?
Rebecca Hubbell says
Hi Tanya, I have a recipe for h9omemade Irish Cream on my site that you can make and use or you can use store bought.
Barbara Simpson says
What is the ratio of Kahlua and condensed milk to make the sauce?
Rebecca Hubbell says
The sauce is just Irish Cream and Sweetened Condensed Milk and the ingredient amounts are listed in the recipe card.
Victoria Daugherty says
I had to make this as soon as I saw it. Couple of things, make sure you get the flavor of cake listed…I got Devil’s Food and think it made a difference and also put 1 tsp of vanilla instead of 1 Tbsp – my bad! The cake was still delicious, but I wonder if it would have been even better with everything done correctly. The frosting was to die for, but with younger kids, I would cut the Bailey’s and add more cream – it was a bit strong with the alcohol.
Rebecca Hubbell says
Hi Victoria, I’m glad you enjoyed the cake. The boxed cake flavors definitely make a difference. I use the chocolate fudge in all of my adapted chocolate cakes because I think it has the best flavor and texture! It is definitely a boozy cake, if you were going to make it again for the kiddos, I would recommend using Bailey’s Coffee Creamer instead of the alcohol.
Barbara says
Can’t wait to make this cake this weekend, but I’m a little confused. This list of ingredients calls for 3boxes of pudding mix, but the directions for the frosting say 1/3 cup of pudding..
Do I mix up the pudding and then measure 1/3 cup?
Rebecca Hubbell says
Hi Barbara, the cake itself has ONE 3.4-ounce box of pudding mix and the frosting has 1/3 cup of pudding mix, I hope that clears things up 🙂
Melissa says
I was looking at the nutrition guide and it doesn’t say what a serving size is? Is it the whole cake?
Rebecca Hubbell says
Hi Melissa, the servings are higher in the recipe card. The cake is 16 servings so the nutritional information is based on 1 slice.