This cake was very popular during WWII in Denamrk, when eggs and butter were rationed, so the original version of the cake is in fact vegan. Child friendly? yes! Does it taste like beer? No! Its a spiced cake that smells like autumn, winter and Christmas !
This recipe is a bit different than the usual version, and have been used in my family since I was a child. We add way more cinnamon also cardamom which is usually not in the recipe.
One ingredient that might be difficult to find is the beer, as its a very specific Danish beer, Hvidtøl. It’s a very low alcohol percent beer (about 1.8° depending on brand) made with malt. To find your mystery beer for this cake then look for:
- A sweet dark beer brewed with malt, with a very low alcoholpercent.
- Check if its vegan on a list here.
Makes 14-16 long pieces like shown
Ingredients
Dry ingredients
- 500g flour (17.6 oz)
- 500g brown sugar (17.6 oz) (i did 2/3 brown sugar and 1/3 regular sugar, but you can do all brown, thats traditional)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder or natron
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoons ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- Pinch of salt
Wet Ingredients
- 33 cl Hvidtøl / low alcohol percent sweet dark malt beer (11 oz)
Vegan butter or margarine to grease baking paper
What you will need
- 1 big bowl and a whisk or fork
- 1 sift
- Measuring cups and spoons or a scale
- 1 big wide oven proof dish and baking paper
- 1 silicone spatula
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180c (356 F).
- Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Make sure that the mixture is completely smooth, no big or small clumps of sugar.
- Make a little hole in the dry mixture and add in the beer. With a whisk mix well for a few minutes until completely smooth. The dough should be heavy and thick like pictured, but still completely smooth.
- Prepare the oven proof dish, line it with baking paper, cut the corners a bit and fold the paper in. Lightly grease the baking paper with some vegan butter or margarine. The dough is very sticky, this is an important step, don’t leave it out.
- Pour in the thick batter, scoop out the remaining batter to the dish with a silicone spatula. Even out the batter to level it.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 180c (356 F) for 35 - 50 minutes on normal setting.The baking time depends on the oven and the size dish you’re using. I use a 25 x 32 cm (10 x 12.5 inch) dish, and I baked it for 42 minutes, without having to cover the cake. If you have a dish that is narrower and taller, you might bake it for longer time, and it might be necessary to cover the cake with some aluminum foil later in the baking time, to prevent the cake from burning, however this is normal when you bake this cake.Pierce the cake in the middle with a knife to test if it’s fully baked. If there’s any soft dough on the knife the cake is not finished, so continue to bake.
- Take the cake out the oven when finished baking and let cool down for a bit. Serve in thick slices with vegan butter or margarine, it’s especially good when a bit warm and the butter melts!
Enjoy !
