A Healthy(er) Chocolate and Beer Cake For Hosting Dinner

Since about age 6, chocolate cake has been one of my absolute favorite foods in the world. My older sister, and best friend, used to make me chocolate cake on special occasions - from scratch. One of the many reasons she was my favorite human. My favorite part? She used to let me lick the bowl. Talk about love and friendship!

We had some very lovely company this evening, a dear friend, and one of the kindest people we know. I also had a snow day due to the storm this morning. So, we made chocolate cake.

Thanks to a few changes we made to the original recipe, we also felt better about eating it. Perhaps we felt a little to good about eating it, since all that's left is a tiny piece. This tiny piece, will likely not see the next day.

This recipe is inspired by Flora Shedden's "wardrobe cake", but with a few changes to suit us. We used whole wheat flour in place of white, half the sugar than the original, mainly dark chocolate, unsweetened cocoa powder. We made a frosting with yogurt, peanut butter, cocoa powder, and cacao nibs. It all came out moist and fluffy and the IPA and whole wheat flour gave it a bready, hearty quality.

Modified recipe:

• 200g unsalted butter
• 280ml IPA
• 100g dark chocolate (we used a valentine's day 60% dark chocolate candy)
• 70g cocoa powder
• 300g whole wheat flour (sifted)
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 150g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 80ml regular plain full fat yogurt
• 20ml water
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp ground cardamom 

Icing:
4 dollops of yogurt or 1 bar of butter
5 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp espresso
2 tablespoons of peanut butter
Powdered sugar, cinnamon, and cardamom to taste