This weekend as part of our football celebrations, I decided I would cook up a beer cake for the ‘boys’ so that they could have a piece of cake with their beer if they so desired. Seemed to be a sound proposition as there wasn’t any cake remaining by the time the guests left! There are recipes many around and I don’t ever use the same type of beer, so although this recommends a dark beer really any beer will do the trick, although the darker the beer, the darker the cake. This recipe comes from Tessa Kiros and is Portuguese in origin. The beauty about this cake is that it stays moist for days and I have also served it with a ‘beer’ syrup, but it is wonderful on its own.
Beer cake
175g unsalted butter, softened
175g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
1 tablespoon milk
200ml dark beer
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
150ml clear runny honey
300g plain flour
1 heaped teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarb of soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
A good grating of fresh nutmeg
55g chopped walnuts (or nuts of your choice)