Just finished taping several more episodes of The Big Wild, during which one of the boys said something that flashed me back to a recipe I’ve not made in a long time; I promised I’d post it now, so here ya go! Who says beer’s just for cooking? It’s for baking, too! NOTE: If you copied this in the first day or so it was up, please do so again! I posted the initial recipe from memory and was a bit off on my ratios; not fatal, but not as good as it could and should be – Do ‘er up as she is now and you’re good to go!
Here’s a great tasting cake that blends the distinctive sweet/savory flavors of beer in a dense, moist cake recipe. Darn near any dark beer with character will work great, from Porter to Bock to Stout; for something really special, try it with Sam Smith’s Taddy Porter or Guinness Stout.
It’s best to have ingredients at room temperature prior to combining. You’ll also want your beer flat and the alcohol removed: Pop the beer open, pour it into a saute pan and let it sit until it comes to room temp. Heat the beer over medium-low heat to a simmer; continue to simmer until you smell that the booze has simmered off. What you’ll have left is the nice skunky/sweet characters that you want!
The Batter:
2 cups dark brown sugar
3 cups All Purpose, Unbleached Flour
1 ½ cups Dark Beer
2 cups butter
2 teaspoons Baking Soda
½ teaspoon salt
3 medium eggs
½ teaspoon Ceylon or ‘True’ cinnamon
½ teaspoon Allspice
½ teaspoon Mace
¼ teaspoon ground Clove
Combine sugar butter in a large mixing bowl and cream them until the blend is smooth and even. Add eggs one at a time, beating each one into the mix thoroughly before moving on to the next.
Preheat your oven to 350º F.
Sift the remaining dry ingredients together, (Flour, baking soda, salt, and spices), and make sure they’re well blended.
Add half the dry ingredients and half the beer to the butter/sugar/egg mixture, blending thoroughly. Add the remainder of the dry mix and beer and blend thoroughly again.
Generously butter and flour a loaf or Bundt pan, and pour in batter using a spatula. Gently tap the pan on your counter to make sure the batter settles all the way in and is even in the pan. We’re using a rubber baby bumper bundt pan for this one…
Bake for approximately 1 hour, until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
Let the cake stand in the pan for about 5 minutes, then turn it out onto a small mesh wire rack. Allow to cool thoroughly.
Mix ¼ teaspoon of powdered Cinnamon with 4 tablespoons of Confectioners 10X sugar and sprinkle liberally over the cake.
Really does Go great with the beer you made it with; you might also top this with fresh berries or citrus fruit medley, or go all in with a Hazelnut whipped cream.
UrbanMonique 