100 Ways to Use Beer in Food and Drinks: #14 Cake

Upon skimming through the latest version of Cooking Light, we fell upon a “breads” section—correction—“quick breads” section. You’re wondering why I’d be skimming through Cooking Light? The gf has a subscription and you do know I’m watching my girlish figure… Anyway, we decided to go with the maple stout “quick bread” recipe since I had some of my homebrew stouts left.

But first: I’ve come to the conclusion that the jerks at Cooking Light have some gall to call this thing bread…er “quick bread.” I have no f’ing clue what the hell quick bread is, but this thing is cake…and I’m proud of it. I’m not doing research on what quick bread is either—I don’t want to know. Okay, now we can move on.

I got out my Vanilla Cafe Con Leche Stout and we started baking. Typically, when the two of us do some form of cooking/baking, there is an ample amount of bickering  (and in my case, exaggerated *sighs*) occurring.  However, this time we did well as a team; I had a good feeling about this.

The cake came out really well, with rave reviews from the fam. Probably the best of these cooking with beer recipes to date.  I claim fame to this recipe for two reasons:

(1) The Beer: the brew we used is a homebrew (surprise surprise). This brew has half a pound of espresso, one bourbon soaked vanilla bean, and lactose powder. The stout hits you first with a bitter coffee flavor, then you taste nutty undertones (from the barley and complemented by the espresso) and get the vanilla flavor that is accentuated (dollar word) by the lactose—making it a little sweet. It really is almost like drinking a slightly sweet coffee. In the cake, the nuttiness of the beer really comes out and gives the cake something extra that really goes well with the maple flavor.

(2) The glaze: the first thought was put walnuts baked into the top of the cake. Problem: no walnuts. We went on to the glaze, then found hazelnuts, which were caramelized and then mixed in with the glaze. The glaze paired well with the extra flavor that the beer gave to the cake.

With that, I bring you the Cafe Con Leche Maple Stout CAKE. It has the moist texture of a cake, the sweetness of a cake, which means…it is a cake! With this adapted recipe (beer included), you will get a sweet cake with nutty undertones, and even a subtle coffee flavor. What best to put on top of the cake but a sweet glaze with caramelized hazelnuts! You’re welcome.

Vanilla Cafe Con Leche Stout

Grains:

• 6.6 lbs Briess Golden Light DME
• .75 lbs Chocolate Malt
• 1.25 Belgian Special B
• .5 Black Patent Malt

Cafe Con Leche Maple Stout CAKE:

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons softened butter
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup Vanilla Cafe Con Leche Stout
• 1/2 cup fat-free sour cream
• 5 tablespoons maple syrup (or whatever kind of syrup you have in the closet) …we did use the real sh*t though…
• 5 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• Hazlenuts