Cake and Ice Cream!

If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter (@cliophineas), you'll know that last night, I was utterly thwarted in my attempt to sew a Bombshell swimsuit. I've cleaned and organized the whole Craft Lounge but there's no sign of my mysteriously vanishing swimsuit elastic. The last time I mysteriously lost something, it turned up 2 years later out of nowhere. Egad.

Anyway, it's been a while since I've blogged about any baking or cooking projects. And since I spent most of last Saturday in the kitchen for Phin's birthday feast, I thought I should put these two tried and true recipes out there.

Phineas is not a big cake lover, and we had decided that root beer and creamsicle floats would be his birthday dessert. But since his family - um, all of them - decided to come for dinner at the last minute I thought we should have cake, too. So, I pulled out Patisserie at Home by Will Torrent, an Xmas gift from Phin.  

The Chocolate and Beer Cake is fast becoming a favorite thanks to a combination of ease and awesome results. It's a super moist loaf cake that, thanks to the addition of some dark chocolate, has a gooey fudgy bottom layer. All it really needs is a dusting of powdered sugar and maybe a scoop of vanilla ice cream. 

Chocolate Beer Cake

Don't be fooled by this cake's humble looks. It is a real winner - moist, tender and chocolaty. Thanks to it's moistness, this cake is just as good after a few days, although I doubt that it will last that long if you make it.

Chococolate and Beer Cake by Will Torrent 

(here for metric recipe, below for those who prefer cups and degrees)

1 stick salted butter
1/2c lager, like Stella Artois

1c self rising flour
1/3c cocoa powder
1/2tsp baking soda
2/3c sugar
1/3c milk
1 egg, beaten
1tsp vanilla
1 1/2oz dark chocolate broken into pieces
Preheat oven to 350 and grease loaf pan lined with parchment. Warm butter and beer in saucepan on low until butter melts. Set aside. Sift flour, cocoa and baking soda together. Add sugar, milk, egg, vanilla, chocolate and beer mixture. Stir to combine. Bake for 50 min until a skewer comes out clean. Cool for 5-10 min in pan before turning out.

Since we had ice cream and Orange Fanta leftover, Phin and I had post-work out creamsicle floats on Sunday afternoon. Homemade ice cream really is delicious. I used David Lebovitz' Philadelphia Style Vanilla recipe. Since it has no eggs, the hardest part is remembering to freeze the core of the ice cream machine a day in advance.

Day after ice cream floats.

You can find the recipe here. I like to churn the ice cream about 1-2 hours before I plan to use it so that it has a bit of time to firm up in the freezer. It's creamy and loaded with vanilla flavor. 

Have a great weekend - I hope there is something sweet involved!  We're off to a house warming pool party today.