Lager and lime cake and tastes changing through time

I find it fascinating how our taste changes with time – I was listening to the radio yesterday when “I Stay Away” started playing, a song I hadn’t heard in ages, and then I thought of how Alice in Chains was my favorite #2 band some good 18 years ago (The Smiths always have and will always be #1). Today, except for 2-3 songs, I can’t listen to those CDs anymore because people screaming drives me crazy, I just can’t stand someone yelling instead of singing (I told you I was getting old).

In my early twenties I rarely drank and I didn’t understand how people could like beer – to me it was something too bitter. In my late twenties, however, I started enjoying a glass or two of Prosecco from time to time and beer no longer tasted bitter – ice cold beer actually tasted great on a hot summer day. I’m no connoisseur and my favorite beer is Stella Artois (though I will have a sip of Guinness every now and then), and when I saw this recipe on Olive magazine I immediately wanted to try it – pairing beer and citrus in cake form seemed an excellent idea after I’d tried the beverage with chocolate with great results.

The original recipe was for a layer cake sandwiched and iced with lager buttercream – with the Sahara temperatures we’ve been having here I thought that buttercream was overkill, so I skipped it and baked the cake in a Bundt pan (and me being me I amped the amount of lime zest, obviously). :D The cake turned out extremely tender – like the ones that usually have sour cream or yogurt in their batter – with a nice hint of lime; you can’t actually taste the beer in the cake but you feel there is something else going on other than the citrus flavor – I thought it was delicious.

Lager and lime cake
slightly adapted from the delicious Olive magazine

Cake:
225g all purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
100g unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
finely grated zest of 2 limes
2 large eggs
200ml lager (a light one – I used Stella Artois)
juice of ½ the lime

Glaze:
½ cup (70g) confectioners’ sugar
about 2 teaspoons lime juice

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.Butter and flour an 8-cup capacity Bundt pan.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Using an electric mixer, cream butter, sugar and lime zest until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally. Beat in the vanilla.
On low speed, add the dry ingredients in three additions alternating with the lager in two additions (begin and end with the dry ingredients). Fold in the lime juice.
Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth the surface. Bake for about 35 minutes or until golden and risen and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan over a wire rack for 15 minutes, then carefully unmold onto the rack and cool completely.

Glaze: sift the confectioners’ sugar into a small bowl, gradually add the lime juice and whisk until drizzable. Drizzle over the cooled cake and let the glaze set for 15 minutes.

Serves 8-10

Chocolate and beer cake

Every time I discover something interesting about food I feel like sharing it with you here on the blog – to me it’s like establishing a conversation about it (though sometimes it feels like a monologue).
For instance, I have found out that Waitrose – which website is a great source of recipes like the apple marzipan rolls I made the other day – has a You Tube channel, too, full of recipe videos, and some of them are presented by Will Torrent (the boy being bossed around on James Martin’s videos). :)

I bought Torrent’s cookbook a couple of weeks ago and this amazing chocolate and beer cake, moist, tender and full of flavor, was the first recipe I tried from it; when I noticed that the recipe yielded only one loaf I decided to double it and bake two loaves at once – that proved to be a very wise decision. :) With such a great result I cannot wait to bake more from both his book and his videos, and I believe that the bakewell muffins will be next on my list.

Chocolate and beer cake
from the absolutely beautiful Patisserie at Home: Step-By-Step Recipes to Help You Master the Art of French Pastry

125g unsalted butter
½ cup (120ml) lager beer – I used Stella Artois
125g self-rising flour*
½ cup (45g) unsweetened cocoa powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
125g granulated sugar
75ml whole milk, room temperature
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
50g dark chocolate, in chips or chopped

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Lightly butter a 1kg (2 pound) loaf pan, line it with baking paper and butter the paper as well
Put the butter and beer in a saucepan over a low heat until it melts. Cool for 5 minutes.
Sift together the flour, cocoa powder and baking soda in a mixing bowl and add the sugar, milk, egg, vanilla, chocolate pieces and melted butter mixture. Mix to combine.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes. A skewer in the middle of the cake should come out clean and the top of the cake should bounce back slightly when prodded. Cool in the pan for 30 minutes, then carefully unmold. Cool completely over a wire rack, then carefully peel off the paper.
The cake can be served warm or at room temperature.

* as I usually do, I replaced the self-rising flour for a combination of all purpose flour, baking powder and salt; since I doubled the recipe I ended up using 250g all purpose flour + 1 ¾ teaspoons baking powder + 2 pinches of salt

Serves 6-8