Booze, books and birthdays

It was Gareth’s birthday last week, so I decided it was the perfect opportunity to cook something from the Booze Cakes recipe book I got for Christmas. If you love booze and you love cake, I’d highly recommend it. There’s a huge assortment to choose from, ranging from weird to wonderful to WTF (Peachy Keen Fuzzy Navel cupcakes, anyone?)

Anyway, my first attempt at the honey spice beer cake was not a resounding success, it has to be said, but it was at least edible. The problem was not one of taste, but texture.  A generous portion of beer added to an already-runny cake mixture created a super-squidgy centre, which wouldn’t firm up - even after almost an hour of cooking. As a result, the cake had to be eaten with a spoon and had roughly the same consistency of a sticky toffee pudding. It was also extremely rich and could only be eaten in small doses. This was to be expected though, considering that the recipe required two cups of sugar, as well as honey, lemon and cinnamon. And that’s before we get to the honey beer frosting.

Still, I quite liked it and I can honestly say I’ve never eaten a cake with such an interesting taste before. It’s definitely worth making at least once. But, as I tell Gareth every time we attend a family gathering, go easy on the beer – for your own safety.

To accompany the cake, I gave Gareth a copy of 1001 Beers You Must Try Before You Die, which he tells me is a very enjoyable read, if you like that kind of thing.

Tola x