Jake Furst, executive chef at Melbourne’s Beer DeLuxe, takes a breather after a hectic Good Beer Week to share with us one of his favourite beer-infused dessert recipes.

Beer Deluxe executive chef, Jake Furst

We don’t really sell many desserts at our Fed Square venue, but this cake is a regular fixture on our functions menu as well as in the adjoining cafe. I’ve experimented with several different beers in this recipe. The Rogue Ales Hazelnut Brown was amazing in it and 4 Pines Christmas Stout brought it to another level – there’s heaps of spice in that beer so that comes through in the cake as well.

I prefer serving it warm with some cream and fresh berries, or a red wine berry soup. It matches really well with a sour beer – last time we did it with Rodenbach Grand Cru and that really enhanced the flavours of the dish.

Chocolate Hazelnut Stout Cake

Chocolate Hazelnut Stout Cake

Ingredients

• 350g Caster sugar
• 225g butter
• 4 eggs
• 225g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp bicarb
• 400 ml stout (also works with brown ales) – I usually use 4 Pines
• 100g cocoa
• 90g roasted and crushed hazelnuts
• cream and fresh berries to serve
• grated chocolate, pomegranate and baby basil (optional garnishes if serving cold)

Method

4 Pines Stout

(preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius) (grease and line a 22cm cake tin)

1. Cream sugar and butter in electric mixer
2. Once creamed add 1 egg at a time
3. Sift flour/bicarb/baking powder/cocoa into butter egg mix and fold through.
4. Add stout and hazelnuts and mix till smooth.
5. Pour into the lined cake tin and wrap tight with foil
6. Bake in oven for 25-35 mins depending on the oven strength. (or if you have a steam oven wrap tin in cling film and steam for 90 mins at 120 degrees celsius)
7. If serving cold, allow to cool before carefully slicing horizontally and then garnishing as pictured. Otherwise simply slice and serve warm with cream and fresh berries.

Read more:Beer-infused recipes from Mark Jensen and Paul Mercurio