The Lush Chef

Libations used: 1 bottle plus 1-2 Tbs of beer
Libations left over: 3/4 bottle of beer
It may not be fall yet, but this Honey Spice Beer Cake from the ladies at Booze Cakes has been on my "to bake" list for a long time.  Some friends of mine were doing a housewarming party and weren't planning on making dessert, so The Lush Chef to the rescue!  This particular cake is super rich, moist and decadent—as much as I would like to think I could eat a gigantic piece, I could only eat a small one.  But oh, what a delicious piece of cake it was!  The slightly salty mixed nuts were a nice way to offset the sweetness.  

The recipe calls for honey beer, but any kind of dark, spicy beer is fine.  I had an oatmeal stout on hand and it worked beautifully with this recipe—the flavor was a nice compliment to the lovely mixture of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and allspice.  I bet this cake would also taste amazing with some pumpkin ale or Guinness, so feel free to get adventurous.

Honey Spice Beer Cake - serves 20-24
Cake Ingredients:

• 3 3/4 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cloves
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp allspice
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/4 cup honey
• Juice and zest from 1 lemon
• 1 12 oz bottle of beer 

Frosting Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter
• 3 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
• 1-2 Tbs beer (start with 1 Tbs and if you need more liquid, carefully add more beer until desired consistency)
• 2 Tbs honey
• 2 cups lightly salted mixed nuts

To make the cake:
- Preheat oven to 325.  Grease and flour a 9x13 inch sheet cake pan.
- Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices and set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars for a few minutes, or until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.
- Mix in honey, lemon juice and zest.
- Mix in flour mixture and beer in 3 alternating additions.
- Bake 40-45 minutes.  I actually had to bake mine for about an hour because the cake rose like crazy (all that beer!) and took a while to completely bake through.

To make the frosting:
- In a mixing bowl, cream butter with about 1/3 of the confectioners sugar.
- Mix in 1 Tbs beer and the rest of the confectioners sugar in alternating additions.  If the frosting is looking too thick, keep adding in a little bit more beer.
- Stir in the honey.
- Once the cake has cooled, frost and garnish with the mixed nuts.