A rich and gently-malted chocolate cake with a hint of stout beer and cinnamon. Plus, it uses a mix of white and stoneground wholemeal flour so the crumb has a slightly rough texture that tastes really good.

Makes 1 deep 7” diameter round cake (that can be sliced horizontally and filled), or 1 thinner 8” diameter round cake (for a layer of cake)

Method

Butter the inside of a 7” or 8” round cake tin then line the base with a disk of non-stick paper. I like to weigh out each set of ingredients and have them ready so the final mixing can be speedy. An electric hand whisk is useful, as is our Danish dough whisk for folding at the end.

For the melted butter mix: have the butter melted and off the heat in a pan, and in a mixing bowl have the strong white flour, wholemeal flour, and oil together

For the egg and sugar mix: have the eggs in a bowl, with the brown sugar, roasted barley malt and cinnamon to one side.

For the sifted flour, milk and stout: have the flour, cocoa and baking powder mixed together in a small bowl, with a sieve, and the milk mixed with the stout in a jug.

Here we go...

1. Mix the melted butter in with the flour and oil in the mixing bowl.

2. Whisk the eggs, brown sugar, cinnamon and malt until thick and foamy (and electric hand mixer is good here) then beat all of this through the butter mixture really well until smooth and fluffy.

3. Alternate folding through the milk and stout, then sifted flour/cocoa/baking powder, though the mix in thirds, until smooth.

Spoon in the tin and bake at 150C fan for about 35 minutes (for an 8” thinner cake) or 50 minutes (for a 7” thicker cake) until a skewer poked in comes out clean.

Leave to cool in the tin then wrap well when almost cold to stop it drying out. Freezes very well.