Chocolate lager cake with hot cross bun cream cheese icing

“I am mighty impressed with myself for having baked this. It’s delicious – and the beer can be replaced with your personal favourite – I find that stout is popular in these kinds of cakes, with good reason! I used an alcohol-free beer. There’s a rich, caramelly almost yeasty flavour that beer and chocolate create when combined, which is hard to beat.” – Khanya Mzongwana

 

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1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Grease a 20 cm cake tin (or two) with non-stick cooking spray and line the bottom with baking paper.

2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until pale and smooth using an electric beater. Beat in the eggs in one by one until combined.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder into the butter mixture and fold through gently. Stir in the beer until combined.

4. Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin and bake for 35–40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool on a wire cooling rack until ready to use.

5. To make the icing, beat all the ingredients together until combined and smooth. Ice the cake and dust on a bit of mixed spice if you like.

Find more cake recipes here. 

Photograph: Jan Ras
Videography: Romy Wilson
Production: Khanya Mzongwana
Food assistant: Emma Nkunzana