Irish cream Bundt cake with chocolate chips
Irish cream Bundt cake is the perfect dessert for celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. Studded with chocolate chips and drizzled with a simple powdered sugar and Bailey’s glaze, this cake is made even more festive with colorful shamrock sprinkles. This Irish cream Bundt is made completely from scratch.
I’ll give you variations and substitutions where I can, plus helpful tips and tricks for success. Read on for this info as well as the recipe. If you’d like to skip straight to the recipe, use the jump to recipe button at the top of the post.
You may also be interested in my blueberry Bundt cake and my chocolate Bundt cake recipes. For ease of browsing, you can find all of my cake recipes in one place.
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Why you should make this recipe
- Feeds a crowd – This Bundt cake gives you about 14 servings, so it’s perfect for a gathering.
- St. Patrick’s Day – It’s a great dessert for celebrating St. Paddy’s Day. It’s delicious and festive with it’s shamrock sprinkles.
- Versatile – I made this cake with chocolate chips, but you can swap them out for dried fruit, nuts, or a combination.
Chocolate chip Irish cream Bundt cake
Bundt cakes are perfect for people like me who are more about the cake than the frosting. They are also the kind of thing I’d serve to friends and family coming around for dinner, or a visit. It’s unassuming, delicious and this version with Irish cream and shamrock sprinkles is a perfect dessert for St. Paddy’s Day.
This Bundt cake is perfect for feeding a crowd. The chocolate chips give it a bit of sweetness, as does the Irish cream liqueur. Make this delicious Bundt cake while you’re baking a loaf of Irish soda bread to go with your corned beef and cabbage or Irish lamb stew.
Ingredients
For this simple Bundt cake, we’re using common pantry ingredients. You probably have everything you need, maybe even the Irish liqueur!
- Flour – Regular, all purpose flour is perfect here.
- Chocolate chips – Use whatever you have or prefer. I used bittersweet chips.
- Substitution: You can swap out chocolate chips for nuts, dried fruit, etc.
- Eggs – Room temperature, large eggs.
- Baking powder – Check the date to make sure it is not expired.
- Salt – Kosher salt or fine sea salt, whatever you have.
- Vanilla – Vanilla gives this cake a ton of flavor.
- Sugar – Regular granulated, or caster sugar gives our cake a touch of sweetness.
- Irish cream liqueur
- Cream – Heavy cream, also called double cream.
- Substitution: You can use half and half, you don’t have cream.
- Butter – I use unsalted butter, so I can control the amount of salt.
- Oil – A neutral oil like canola or grapeseed will help baked goods retain moisture.
Pro tip: Weigh your flour. This is by far the most accurate way to measure flour.
This is the scale that I own and use daily. It is easy to use, plus it measures in pounds, ounces and grams.
Measuring ingredients by weight, ESPECIALLY in baking, is much more accurate than cup measurement.
How to make
Here’s a quick summary of how to make this chocolate chip Irish cream Bundt cake from scratch. Please see the recipe card at the bottom of this post for the full recipe.
Making a Bundt cake is no different than making any cake recipe, but I will say the one thing that is extra important is attention to detail when it comes to flouring the cake pan. A Bundt pan has crevices and places where cake batter can stick. Take your time and do a very thorough job. The extra few minutes you spend here will guarantee successful unmolding later.
- Whisk dry ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar in mixer.
- Add eggs, one at a time.
- Add remaining ingredients, except chocolate chips.
- Fold in chocolate chips with a rubber spatula.
- Pour cake batter into floured pan.
- Smooth the top with a rubber spatula, then bake for about an hour.
- Notice how the edges of the cake have started to pull away from the sides of the pan? We’re ready to unmold.
Pro tip: Use gloves when buttering the pan! Your fingernails (even short ones) can scrape the sides and remove the butter. The flour won’t stick to that spot, but your cake will.
Bailey’s Bundt cake glaze
This glaze is quick and easy, and uses only a few ingredients. You can make it as thick or as thin as you like it by adjusting the powdered sugar, cream cheese or the Irish cream liqueur.
If it is too thin, add a bit more powdered sugar or cream cheese. If it is too thick, add a teaspoon or two of liquid.
I like this glaze to be somewhere in the middle. Pourable, but still thick enough to thoroughly coat the cake and not run right off.
Decorate the Irish cream Bundt cake with fun sprinkles while the glaze is still wet. It’s easiest to do this with the cake on a cooling rack placed inside of a sheet pan. It makes for easier cleanup.
Irish cream Bundt cake FAQ’s
On average, it takes anywhere from 50 – 70 minutes, depending on your oven.
The best way to ensure your cake comes out of the mold easily to butter and flour the pan thoroughly before you bake.
The easiest way to get your Bundt cake out cleanly is to let it cool a few minutes first. You’ll notice that as it cools, the cake will pull away from the edges of the Bundt mold.
Then, place a cooling rack over the pan and hold it firmly in place as you flip it over. Let gravity help you – the cake will slide right out, then lift the cake pan straight up to avoid hitting the sides.
Bundt pans are measured in cups, not inches. The easiest way to figure out the size of your Bundt pan is to get out your measuring cups and fill it with water until it’s reached capacity. If it takes 12 cups of water to fill the pan, you have a 12 cup Bundt pan.
Tools and equipment
- 12 cup Bundt pan – this is the exact pan that I used for this recipe.
- Stand mixer – just slightly smaller than the one I own, this is a great mixer.
- Cordless hand mixer – this cordless version will also get the job done, with no tangled cord in the way.
Variations and substitutions
I added bittersweet chocolate chips to my Irish cream Bundt cake, but you can swap them out and make endless variations to this recipe. Another option is to omit them and have a plain Bailey’s Bundt cake.
- Nuts – Chopped pecans, walnuts or hazelnuts would be nice here. Just make sure you toast them before adding to the cake batter.
- Chocolate – My “go to” chips are bittersweet chocolate, because they are less sweet. If you prefer a sweeter chip, try semisweet, milk chocolate or white chocolate.
If you have some Irish cream liqueur left over and you’d like to make a quick and easy, no bake treat, check out these Irish cream whiskey balls.
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Irish cream Bundt cake with chocolate chips
Equipment
Ingredients
For the cake
- 3 cups all purpose flour 12.75 oz. + 3 tbsp. for flouring the pan
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. kosher salt I use Diamond Crystal
- 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter room temp (12 tbsp. or 3/4 cup)
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 3/4 cup Irish cream liqueur
- 4 tbsp. neutral oil – canola or grapeseed are good options
- 1 cup chocolate chips
For the Irish cream glaze
- 4 ounces full fat cream cheese room temp (half of one block)
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter room temp
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp. Irish cream liqueur
- pinch fine sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C / Gas mark 4. Adjust oven rack to middle.
- Use 2 tbsp. of butter to grease the Bundt cake pan, then dust with 3 tbsp. of flour. Turn the pan upside down (over the sink or bin) and tap firmly to remove excess flour. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer (or with a handheld electric mixer), cream remaining butter and sugar together for 3 – 5 minutes, until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating before each additional egg. Scrape down the bowl and give it one more mix.
- In a glass measuring cup (or a small mixing bowl with a spout), stir together the vanilla, heavy cream, Irish cream and oil.
- Add in half the flour mixture, mix until just combined. Add liquid ingredients (cream mixture) and mix to incorporate. Scrape down bowl, and add the rest of the flour mixture. Mix until just combined.
- Gently fold in chocolate chips with a rubber spatula, making sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl.
- Pour cake batter into prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.
- Bake for 50 – 70 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Baking time will vary depending on your oven.
- Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack. Let cool in the pan for 5 – 7 minutes, before turning over to unmold.
- Let the cake cool completely for at least 2 hours before glazing. Apply sprinkles while glaze is still tacky.
Make the Irish cream glaze
- In a small (1 quart) sauce pan, combine all ingredients for the glaze over low heat.
- Stir constantly until mixture comes together into a smooth, pourable glaze. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.
- Drizzle over completely cooled cake. Decorate with sprinkles, if desired.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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Originally published 2/26/22, most recent update 2/26/24.
Ooooh! You had me at Irish Cream! So yummy!
Thank you so much, Laura! 🙂
Love the cream cheese based Irish cream frosting and the 3/4 cup in the cake. So easy but perfect for St. Patty’s Day or any time!
Thanks so much, Beth. I hope you like it!
A little dense, but really tasty. I liked this better the second day, when the liquer soaked the cake. I followed the recipe exactly, except I used mini-chocolate chips instead of regular chocolate chips. I will definitely be making this again.
Thank you, Varnamala! I’m glad you liked it.