Chocolate Beer Cake

Presenting Chocolate Beer Cake. All marriage proposals can be addressed to Emma @ “The Cake Mistress” … just kidding. But seriously, why am I single?

It all started with a refined, ladylike evening of Bogan Bingo with four of my besties visiting Melbourne from Perth. This ain’t your Nanna’s bingo. Oh no. Picture a sea of flannelette shirts, mullet wigs and ‘colourful language’ against a pumping 80s and 90s Rock soundtrack e.g Guns N’ Roses, Bon Jovi, AC/DC. The game is essentially the same, however everything gets a mildly offensive but hilarious bogan twist. I loved it, but if you’re a lady of delicate disposition this might not be for you.

The winner is the first to get a full box, or a “Paris Hilton” as it’s known in Bogan-speak. When you’re one number off a full box, you stand and yell “C’MMMOOOOONNNNNN!” Lleyton Hewitt style. If you win, you yell “F***en BINGOOOO!” to which the losers yell “F**K OFF!”. The number calls are given “colourful” twists too, which I’m not repeating here, oh my.

There was an air guitar competition won by a very enthusiastic albeit, phallic-inspired performance from a classy lass.

And this little Cake Mistress found herself in a Strip Bingo contest, where an item of clothing had to be removed for each number until you marked your first square in the top line.

(Oh, did I mention? We had a little bit of wine that night.)

I got down to my jeans, and failing to negotiate a headband as an item of clothing I bowed out early with grace. Doubt I could compete with the winner. WHO REMOVED EVERYTHING.

Yes, we saw his Meat & Two Veg.

His Twig & Berries.

His Wedding Tackle.

(More wine was sought immediately.)

The game was close but a member of our posse yelled “F**CKEN BINGOOOO!!!” and we scored the major prize: a 6-pack of nasty cheap-ass beer, which shall remain nameless.

We tried trading it for wine, selling it to the patrons, giving it away in the pub and even paying the taxi driver with it.

No luck.

Burdened with the nasty beverage we figured to only way to stomach it was to hide it in a cake. And so the Chocolate Beer Cake was born. From Alf Stewart to Martha Stewart in just minutes!

I hate hyperbole, but this chocolate cake is the best one I’ve ever tried, even with beer in it (and I HATE beer). I adapted the recipe to include Almond Meal, which blends beautifully with the nutty beer flavour and adds a fudgy texture. The cake has an amazing crumb and is so soft it melts away in your mouth.

In fact, it’s so good I had it nekkid. That’s right. No frosting on this baby. If you want to be fancy, you could dust the top with a little icing sugar.

The adapted recipe, converted to grams is below. Enjoy!

Chocolate Beer Cake

Original from the Barrington Brewery in Great Barrington MA, published on Epicurious.com
Cake spotted on Pikelet and Pie, via Smitten Kitchen
Recipe below converted to grams and tweaked by The Cake Mistress

Makes two 20cm cakes, 24 cupcakes or one Bundt cake

YOU WILL NEED
250ml Beer (I used a nasty Australian brew, but a quality stout would be perfect)
225g unsalted butter
65g  unsweetened cocoa powder (3/4 cup)
215 g plain flour
80g Almond Meal
360g caster sugar (2 cups)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
160g sour cream (2/3 cup)

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 180°C (150c fan-forced). Grease your cake/muffin tin well.
Simmer the beer and butter in a medium sized pan over medium heat, then whisk cocoa powder through until fully combined.
In a large bowl, sift the flour, almond meal, sugar, baking soda and salt together and stir to combine.
In a medium bowl, hand-beat the eggs and sour cream, then stir the warm chocolate mix in.
Make a well in the dry ingredients and gently hand-fold in the wet mix with a rubber spatula until combine.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 15 minutes for cupcakes or 20-25 minutes for cake, or until the cake comes away from the sides of the pan and a skewer comes out clean.
Leave the cakes to completely cool before trying to remove from the pan. Dust with icing sugar to finish.

Keeps very well in an airtight container for at least three days. Don’t microwave the cake to reheat it, as the beer flavour becomes much more pronounced and it will taste a bit funky.