Sick of winter yet? Don’t fight it. Just give in. Let’s bake something cozy and nice.
I love gingerbread, but I tend to think of it as a Christmassy thing, or perhaps something you eat in the fall with your pumpkin spice latte. For those of you who are sick to death of the myriad ways in which pumpkin spice/chai latte/apple pie spice mixes have permeated all winter baking, here comes some simple relief.
The ginger in this gingerbread cake is the only spice you’ll find in the recipe – well, there’s a little hint of cinnamon, but it’s very much a subtle background taste. The porter beer has all the complexity you need to round out the flavours in this cake. The dark malt has a roasted coffee flavor that stands up the molasses. Neither overwhelms the ginger, but together they contribute to an undercurrent of caramel.
This is just different enough and yet just familiar enough to be the perfect not-too-sweet treat for the several snowy days yet to come. Best part is that you get to finish your beer with it, but I’ll be sipping aged rum with mine.
One last clever bit: you don’t need spices to hide the bitter taste of the leaveners, because the beer does a lot of the work of rising the batter. Porter Gingerbread would make a fantastic accompaniment to baked or roasted pears. With whipped cream, of course.
Recipe is listed here: http://ciaodownwithmamatheresa.com/recipes-4/