Pint O'Guinness Cake

The following birthday cake was a joint effort between my roommate and I. She baked many delicious chocolate Guinness cakes and whipped up batches of irresistible Bailey's icing while I figured out how to assemble it all into a stellar pint of Guinness.

I started on a sturdy piece of white foam-core board, stacking two 6" round cakes and securing them with skewers.

I cut a circle from cardboard, covered it with foil and sat it atop the first 2 cake layers to add support for the remaining layers. I stuck a large dowel through the entire center of the cake (into the foam-core board as well) and shimmied on the next 6" layer.

After adding the last 3 layers, I used a serrated knife to start carving a pint glass shape.
Note: I put pieces of parchment paper around the base of the cake for easy clean-up.

I should have printed a photo of a pint glass or used and actual glass to get a more realistic figure but tapering the base seemed to create an acceptable shape. I lightly slathered on some icing - since this wasn't a stable buttercream I didn't want to lay it on too thick for fear of the fondant sliding off.

I opted to wrap the "pint glass" with dark chocolate fondant rather than try and cover this tall of a cake the traditional way. You'll notice my sloppy seam in the back... shhhh... don't look!

I used the same wrap-method with white fondant to mimic the frothy stout. I got a little overzealous and gave too much head... to this pint of Guinness. [Actually... the real reason is that I ran out of dark chocolate fondant and I needed to make up the rest of the space.]

The top of the pint was left fondant-free, instead topped with a thick layer of creamy icing. I added a smiley face for good measure as my roommate and I have done to the birthday boy's beer many a late night at the local watering holes. I used fondant cutters to create the birthday message and the Cricut machine to cut the "Guinness" lettering.

Tah-dah! The perfect pint... almost!

We transported the cake to a bar via a very cautious cab ride and I'm still traumatized by all the hands that touched the "finger-licking-good" icing while we patiently waited for the rest of the party to arrive. Let's just say the head did not hold it's structural integrity for very long.