Cocoa-Bear Cake (AKA Dragon’s Milk Cake)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp instant decaf or coffee powder

2 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup Dragon’s Milk (room temp) or any dark beer

½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Grease and sugar an 8” springform
• Combine dry ingredients in food processor
• Add wet ingredients except beer, pulse a few times
• Add beer and mix enough to blend well
• Pour batter into greased and sugared prepared pan.
• Bake 50-55 minutes until cake springs under pressure
• Cool before removing from springform pan
• Drizzle with icing (recipe below)

ICING – While the cake is in the oven, mix the following in a blender until it’s completely smooth

• 1 can full fat coconut milk
• ½ cup cocoa powder
• ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• ¼ cup dark brown sugar
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 tsp instant decaf or coffee powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• Pinch of salt

173 Battered: A Whipped and Sipped Mystery

Alene had gone off to college and forgotten all about Neal Dunn, until a summer day after her third year at Northwestern, when they had bumped into each other at a Wrigleyville bar. Neal bought her a beer and invited her to a Cubs game. That had been her first stout, and she thought it was so yummy she bought a six-pack and shared it with Ruthie, who went on to invent a stout cake. They changed “beer” to “bear” so as not to alarm the customers, and it worked.