Ingredients for cake
¾ cup chocolate Castle Chocolate Milk Stout
120g butter
½ cup (110g) brown treacle sugar or muscavado
¼ cup golden syrup
One free-range egg
One tablespoon fresh minced ginger
One tablespoon finely chopped preserved ginger in syrup
One teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon salt
pinch of white pepper
pinch of ground nutmeg
¾ cup (230gms) flour
One teaspoon baking soda
Ingredients for butterscotch sauce
One 340ml bottle Castle Chocolate Milk Stout
Two tablespoons butter
½ cup sugar
One cup cream
One teaspoon vanilla
One to two teaspoons sea salt flakes
Cake preparation
Preheat the oven to 180ºC and line a 20cm to 22cm square or round cake tin with baking paper.
Place the stout and butter in a small pan and bring it to boiling point. Stir until the butter has dissolved. Remove it from the heat and allow it to cool a little.
Add the butter-stout mix in a large bowl with the sugar and golden syrup. Whisk until it is well combined.Add the egg and whisk again. Add all the spices and whisk.
Sift the flour and baking soda in by hand and whisk briefly until smooth – it will still be fairly runny.
Pour this into a lined 20cm cake tin, tap the filled pan to remove bubbles. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. The cake is done when it is springy to the touch and when a sharp knife pierced into the thickest part comes out clean.
Butterscotch sauce preparation
The quantities make a little more than you need for the cake but store the rest in a sterile jar to use on ice cream.
Bring the chocolate milk stout and butter to the boil in a medium-sized pan and let simmer for about 10 minutes until it has reduced by more than half. Add the sugar and continue to let this cook, stirring often until it reaches 110ºC on a sugar thermometer. This will take around 15 minutes.
At that temperature, add the cream while stirring constantly. Carry on cooking this until it thickens more. Once it reaches 105ºC on the thermometer, the sauce is ready. It will also thicken more as it cools.
Allow the cake to cool to room temperature, then pour the sauce over and serve.
