I want a hamburger.
with cheese and pickles and too much ketchup.
And chocolate milk.
This is not that… but this is still good.
Why would I crank up my oven and make a spice cake in the middle of summer? I dunno.
Why would I make this cake when what I really want is a giant hamburger and chocolate milk? I dunno.
Why haven’t I gotten my stupid shaggy hair cut yet? Don’t know.
What the heck is going on with Frank on The Bachelorette and why did he has to go all the way to Tahiti to drop bombs? I do not know.
Why the deep V? Why?
We’re going to get to the bottom of this Bachelorette thing. We’re going to talk about it. I really have a few things I need to get off my chest.
Seriously.
This spice cake with beer and honey is from a book called Booze Cakes. Pretty self explainitory, right? It’s a pretty cute book from two Los Angeles based ladies. If you have a sweet tooth for things like Jello Shot Cakes, or if you were just dying to find a way to get tequila into your cakes… this is totally the book for you.
This spice cake is pretty interesting. It’s got a heartwarming combination of spices, and a super moist crumb. This cake stays moist for daaaaays. The recipe called for granulated sugar, brown sugar aaaand honey. That’s a lot of sugar. Even after cutting back on the sugar I thought it was dang sweet. You might be able to cut back on the sugar just a touch more.
Can you taste the beer? Just barely… and it’s not really beer-y. The hoppy beer is a great compliment to the spice and honey. It really rounds everything out.
Can you replace the beer with anything not beer like? No… It’s a Honey and Beeeeer Cake. Just go with it.
If beer offends you, how about Honey Whole Wheat Pound Cake? Super yum. Trust.
With barely sweetened cream and salty roasted nuts, I say this cake is pretty swell.
If you have a mega sweet tooth, Cream Cheese Frosting would set this cake over the top!
Honey and Beer Spice Cake
adapted from Booze Cakes
makes one 9×13-inch cake
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (next time I’ll use a combination of all-purpose and white whole wheat flour)
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon all-spice
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup honey
12 ounces (1 1/2 cups) pale ale beer or honey beer
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 9×13-inch (don’t use anything smaller, seriously) pan and set aside.
I a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fit with a paddle attachment, cream together butter, sugars, spices and lemon zest. Mixture may look crumbly, but mix for about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition.
Beat in the lemon juice and honey.
Add the flour mixture and beer. Alternating. First add a third of the flour mixture, mix. Add half of the beer, mix. Add the second third of flour, the rest of the beer. Mix. Then finally add the last third of the flour. Beat the batter on high speed for 30 seconds. The batter will be loose and smooth.
Pour into the prepared pan and bake in the upper third of the oven for 45-50 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
Serve with barely sweetened whipped cream and salty roasted nuts. This cake would also be pretty delicious with a cream cheese frosting.
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Cool– too bad my parents won’t let me eat or drink anything that contains alcohol (Not that I’d want to be a 14-year-old alcoholic…) Have you tried using white whole wheat flour? It’s just like whole wheat flour, but doesn’t have the strong taste or color, and isn’t as dense.
Now I’m a burger queen, but I would take this over a burger any day! Yum!
Moist cakes are best and so are spice cakes. That is how I know this cake is a winner!
I am TOTALLY with you on the deep V… it’s not okay.
oooooh! *drools* This looks delicious! gonna make it for sure! xxx
Joy,
I made this cake tonight, and it was a hit. I skipped the white sugar entirely (just used the brown and honey for sweetener) and used half white flour/half white whole wheat flour. Then I put a cream cheese/vanilla/honey frosting on top. My dad made an “eeew” face when i said that I was making “beer spice cake,” but I saw him taking seconds just a few minutes ago. . . (also, all of the younger brothers that live in my house had both 1sts. and 2nds. and possibly 3rds.)
Oooh wow this sounds different, I bet it was so tasty!! Yummy yum!!
wow! very interesting ingredient…beer in a cake! I love it! Spice cakes are the best! Yesterday I made applesauce stack cake with cinnamon whipped cream for my mother in laws birthday…..holy cow!! it was the best cake ever! Everyone totally gobbled it up and raved about it. I was thinking…since you are Joy the Baker, you might like to try this recipe! I found it on Country Living website. Here is the link. http://www.countryliving.com/recipefinder/stacked-applesauce-cake-3478
It shows the top of the cake without the whipped cream, but there was plenty enough to spread it on top too. It made the cake look all the more beautiful. It was a show stopper. I will be featuring it on my blog either today or tomorrow.
This looks so tasty. Beer in cake is my friend.
This post sprang up in my bloglines at just the right time, as tonight we’re off to our weekly dinner with my parents and I always make dessert. Plus, we had a few boutique wheat beers that didn’t really hit the spot as a drink.
It’s baking right now and smells DEVINE!!!
I used 2 cups plain flour and 1 3/4 cups wholemeal, which I tend to do because I like the chewyness. I also used 3/4 cup honey rather than the full cup because it was taking too long to come out of the squeezy thing. I used Yellow Box honey, which may be something we only have here, but it’s a nicer flaour than regular honey.
What else? I used a 9×9 square pan because that’s what we had, and I made 6 fairy cakes out of the leftover batter. Then, I went onto the book depository site and ordered a copy of the book for myself and one for my old drinking pal who lives in the UK now.
Thanks Joy!
Joy,
Does your recipe reflect the reduced amount of sugar? I reduced it slightly, and found the cake to be not sweet at all, and could have actually been a touch sweeter. And I don’t like things too sweet. But I still LOVE it, and the notes that the beer contributes.
Thanks !!
the recipe as i wrote it above reflects my sugar reduction changes. sorry for the confusion!
Thank you Joy. The cake is still disappearing, so my take on the recipe couldn’t have been too far off!!!
Travel safely,
Ellen
You are funny!! Thanks for the laugh:)
Beer + cake? Yes, please!
I made this Saturday night. It was great.
I didn’t know it made such a big cake,so I gave some to my friends across the street. I don’t think it needs any iceing,it’s great plain.
I love you site and your storys.
Thanks for doing it.
Love,
Catherine
This was a fun and easy cake to make and very very good! I did it for the conversation value and it definitely got the attention. Everyone loved it! The people in the office who don’t like desserts had to try it simply because of the “beer in the title.” I didn’t realize until I had already started that all I had was Coors Light so I went with it. I went with the Buttercream Frosting from your site and it was a hit here. I have had 3 people ask for the recipe. Thanks for a fun one!
Thanks for posting! Not normally a spice cake fan, but was inspired to make this. Had to sub the 9×13 for a bundt pan and the pale ale for a hefeweizen, but the cake came out awesome.
I only have Lager, will that work? this looks so yummy!!
that looks delicious !
i adore your blog; you have the best recipes
the cake is baking as i type…smells so good. really enjoy your blog!
Joy, Joy, Joy, oh Joy! I just had a hunk of beer cake for dinner with barely whipped cream, roasted hazelnuts, and vibrant raspberries as sides. Thank you for supplying single girls everywhere with such a delicious meal!
This looks delish! I agree with you about Frank. . . he made me SO mad too this season. I just wrote a blog post about my thoughts on the finale. I’d love it if you’d come follow my blog too! I’ve been following yours for awhile and I love it!!!
I didn’t have all of the ingredients. I didn’t have a lemon so I added 1 t. orange oil and instead of honey I used maple syrup. For the beer I used an alaskan IPA. It was yummy all the same! Great recipe! My daughter and I ate some for breakfast this morning.
I made this for dinner yesterday afternoon and holy fuck it was so good! I think I only ever want to bake with booze now….
dear joy,
i think you are my soulmate. anytime i need something especially naughty to make (which is pretty much all the time), i know where to go. thank you for writing this amazing blog!
love,
mckinley your soulmate.
This was absolutely fantastic… and the best part is that there is so much of it. Six of us only got through half of it, can’t wait to dig into it tomorrow as soon as I wake up! I’d like to try it with all sorts of different beers. Used Flying Dog Belgian style IPA… wonder what a stout might do, mm mmmm.
Hi Joy!
I love your site, so much fun to read!
I wanted to ask if I could feature this recipe on CraftBeer.com? CraftBeer.com is the consumer facing website of the Brewers Association (the national trade association for craft beer). Along with educating users about craft beer we also work to share craft beers amazing ability to pair with food and its usability in the kitchen.??
I would create a recipe post similar to this one: http://www.craftbeer.com/pages/beer-and-food/recipes/recipes-list/show?title=lambic-beer-sorbetto and would include a bio/photo and link to Joy the Baker. Please let me know if this would be possible. THANKS!
Go for it!
Just made this for my dad for Father’s Day – it’s so good, and so interesting! I cut the white and brown sugars by a quarter cup each and I think it’s plenty sweet. But not too sweet to frost – I love frosting!
I also used a Double-Wide IPA for my beer…I really love good beer so that was important to me. I don’t know about you but I love the hoppiness of IPAs, I think it’s great in the cake!
Hi! Just wanted to pop in and let you know that this cake is currently cooling on my kitchen counter, filling my whole apartment with delicious scents! I am making it for a family member’s birthday (a Texan who swears by spice cake, I guess?) but spice cake was brand new to me! I split it into 2 8″ rounds and baked it for 30 minutes at 350. Looks like they came out beautifully, can’t wait to taste tomorrow. Thanks for this!
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