I don’t always drink beer, but when I do, I bake it into a cake.
I baked this cake for Super Bowl Sunday, and I have to say it was a real touchdown (apologies for the pun). I’m not into football, but I love a food holiday. Super Bowl spreads don’t traditionally include dessert, which I find to be a real tragedy.
Before baking this cake, I asked around about which type of beer I should use. And I was happy it incited some debate. The most popular answer was Guinness. However, I baked with Guinness a few years ago and I was… unimpressed. I once heard that when cooking with wine, you should never use a wine you wouldn’t drink. I don’t drink Guinness, not even on St. Patrick’s Day. So I opted for Blue Moon Winter Abbey Ale. The description on the bottle says, “An abbey ale crafted with roasted malts, hint of Belgian sugar, and a touch of wheat. Rich caramel and toffee notes.” Sounds like dessert to me!
I also learned an insanely useful realization when baking this cake. I’ll get to it in a bit.
Here’s my mise en place. This is a cake mix cake. The butter and sugar were for the glaze.
Since this cake was so easy, I was feeling like I had to fuss over it a bit, so I sifted the cake mix and pudding mix together into the bowl. It was totally unnecessary, but I did it anyway. And I think it made a different in making the batter a bit more fluffy and voluminous.
After I sifted the cake mix and pudding mix into the bowl, I was halfway done. Next came the oil and beer. The beer foamed the batter up a bit, but it all collapsed as I hand mixed it with a rubber spatula.
And then came the 4 eggs… Let’s talk about this. I had just posted about techniques in cracking eggs. And what did I do? Cracked 4 eggs into a separate bowl and then dumped them into the mix without first checking for egg shell fragments. I caught a glimpse of egg shell as the egg mixture was sliding out of the bowl. I did my absolute best to find it before I mixed up the batter, but was unsuccessful. I tried looking at the sides and bottom of the glass bowl to see if I could spot it, but no luck.
I then poured the batter into the prepared bundt pan at a snail’s pace, hoping to spot the egg shell fragment on its way into the pan. It didn’t work.
I was left with no choice but to put it in the oven and hope for the best. I was so frantic over the egg shell fragments, I considered baking an entirely new cake, but I was pressed for time and a second cake wasn’t a possibility.
So I let the cake cool on a rack for a few minutes.
I then started the glaze. The glaze utilized the remainder of the beer in the bottle since the cake only used 1 cup, 1 and 1/3 cups white sugar, and 2 tablespoons of butter. I just melted it all together in a saucepan until it came to a boil.
After the glaze was finished, I poked some holes in the bottom of the cake when it was still in the Bundt pan and poured some glaze in and around the sides of the pan. I let it set and cool for about 10 minutes and then flipped the cake out of the pan onto a foil-covered rack. In all honestly, I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t want to glaze the top of the cake on its serving plate because I knew it would get messy. And glazing the cake directly on top of the wire rack made me nervous that the glaze would harden and “glue” the cake to the rack. Hence the layer of foil on top of the rack. So this way the cake was on a nonstick surface, but still had some space underneath it so the cake could continue to cool all around.
And as I was spooning glaze on top of the cake I spotted it – the egg shell fragments. A little known fact about egg shell fragments is that they sink to the bottom of the pan when baking inside a cake, making them easy to spot once the cake is flipped out of the pan. I was able to fish out the offending fragments and cover up the imperfections on the surface of the cake with some more glaze. Crisis averted.
And then the cake was finished. I didn’t taste it until about 24 hours after it was finished and I think waiting a day to serve it helped the glaze and all the flavors really meld together. It was very moist even a few days afterward. And the beer was not overpowering, but gave the cake a nice, subtle beer flavor. I would definitely bake this again. Perhaps a summertime version with a nice, summer ale is in order. What do you think?
- FOR CAKE
- 1 box yellow cake mix
- 1 box vanilla pudding mix
- 1 cup Blue Moon Winter Abbey Ale (or any beer of your choosing)
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 4 large eggs (no shells!)
- FOR GLAZE
- 1/2 cup Blue Moon Winter Abbey Ale
- 1 1/3 cups white sugar
- 2 tbs butter
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease bundt pan and sprinkle with a pinch of the yellow cake mix.
- Sift cake mix and pudding mix together into a large bowl. (Or just dump them in without sifting.)
- Add in beer, oil, eggs and mix with by hand until smooth.
- Pour batter into prepared bundt pan.
- Bake for approximately 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center of the cake comes out clean, rotating pan around the 17 minute mark.
- While cake is cooling on wire rack, melt butter, remaining beer, and white sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and remove from heat.
- Poke holes in the bottom of the cake while it’s still in the bundt pan. Spoon glaze on top and around the sides of the pan. Let sit for 5-10 minutes.
- Flip cake out of pan onto foil covered wire rack.
- Spoon glaze over cake. Allow to cool completely. Spoon more glaze on top if desired.
- Enjoy!
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Hello! I want to try this recipe this weekend! Do I have to use a bundt pan? I have regular 8″ circle pans. Thanks!
Hi, Melody! You definitely don’t have to use a bundt. Using 8″ pans, this recipe will yield two of them. Let me know how it turns out. This recipe is one of my favorites.
I am making a huge cake for my husbands birthday. Its thursday and the party is on saturday. How long would this cake stay fresh? I want to be able to bake it and decorate it with buttercream frosting tonight would it still be good by saturday or should I wait and do it friday? My whole problem is I work Friday and I am afraid i won’t have all the time I need.
Hi Melissa! You can absolutely bake it tonight and it will still be good on Saturday. Frosting it tonight will help seal in the moisture and freshness of the cake. Just make sure it stays covered on a cake stand or a cake keeper. Hope it’s a hit! I’m sure it will be.
I made this recipe as cupcakes for a friends birthday party and they were a huge success! Everyone was talking about how soft, fluffy and moist the cupcakes were and how amazing the glaze was. The flavors were complex and gave them a very ‘adult’ feel which was perfect since a few eyebrows were raised when I brought out the cupcakes in bright pink wrappers, lol! I ran out of them within just a few minutes and had to hide one away in my friends microwave just to make sure she got a second serving. Will absolutely make this again!
I’m so glad they turned out well, Virginia! Happy Baking!
if I want to make these as cupcakes, and the glaze looks amazing–what would be the best way to pour the glaze, do I need to turn the cupcakes over, take them out of the liners, etc etc??
also, should I frost on top or is the glaze sufficient??
Hi, Jessica! You could spoon the glaze on top of the cupcakes. If the liners are still on, then you run the risk of dripping some on the liners. If you take them out of the liners, then the glaze can just drip over the sides, which might be nice. However, if you need to transport the cupcakes to a party, etc. it could get a little sticky. If you’re serving these at home it should be fine.
It’s a matter of taste, but I found the glaze to be sufficient. You definitely don’t need frosting. And if you decide to use a frosting (I’ve heard of others using a simple vanilla buttercream), then you can omit the glaze.
Happy Baking!
I made this cake a couple years ago for my son’s 21st birthday, and my daughter just requested it for a Halloween party she is hosting. I made it both times using Blue Moon Harvest Pumpkin Ale. The smell alone makes me think I’ve died and gone to heaven. And it tastes fabulous. I’ve glazed it (using only 3/4 of a cup of sugar instead of the full 1 1/3 cups) and then put buttercream frosting (made with the beer instead of milk) over the glaze. It’s so good!
Great tips, Toni! Thank you!
Can I add a can of cherry pie filling to this to make it a black forest cake?