Ginger & Stout Beer Cake

This recipe is adapted from the New York Times' Ginger & Stout Cake. It's perfect with coffee and has a strong, full bodied taste. Not for the timid. I've baked this a few times, but it was my first time to use a new, cast iron bundt pan in a beautiful swirl pattern, given by my daughter M.

GINGER & STOUT BEER CAKE

Ingredients:

Softened butter for greasing the bundt pan

60 grams Demerara sugar

1.5 cups stout beer

1 cup treacle (or molasses)

1 teaspoon baking soda

340 grams all purpose flour

1 tablespoon ginger powder

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cloves, beaten and ground with a mortar and pestle and passed through a sieve

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 eggs

2 vanilla pods, seeds extracted or 1 tablespoon vanilla

210 grams brown sugar

200 grams white sugar

3/4 cup canola oil

Confectioner's sugar for sprinkling

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease the bundt pan with LOTS of butter. Make it thick so that the cake will not stick and you will have a beautiful, crusty exterior for the cake.

New bundt pan. So excited to use it!

Once the pan is heavily coated with the butter, sprinkle the demerara sugar on it.

2. Pour the stout beer and treacle into a pot. Heat it until it simmers. Remove from the heat and add the baking soda and mix with a wire whisk. Note that it will bubble, so make sure your pot is big enough and the mixture doesn't overflow. Set aside to cool.

3. Sift together the flour, powdered spices, pepper and salt.

4. In a bowl, mix the eggs, vanilla and sugars until well integrated. Add the oil. Once it is mixed, add the stout beer mixture.

Add the dry ingredients gradually, mixing as you go. Once the mixture is even, pour into your bundt pan.

5. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes. Test by piercing the cake with a thin barbecue stick, which should come out clean.  Cool on a wire rack and turn over.

This cake came out so well. Look at that delicate and crispy filigree on the edges, due to the butter and demerara sugar! That's the best part of the cake!