We like experimenting with curious pairings, so after putting chocolate with beer to make Sweet Disposition, we thought we’d put Sweet Disposition with chocolate cake for an unexpected twist on a classic.

The result? A decadent, dark chocolate cake that mimics the stout itself. The addition of Sweet Disposition intensifies the rich chocolate flavour profile and adds just a touch of bittersweetness to compliment. Cream cheese frosting tops it off just as pale head sits on top of a frosty glass of Sweet Disposition chocolate stout. Curious yet?

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180°C.

Add butter and WCF chocolate into a small pot and heat on low until melted.

In a large bowl, whisk eggs and yogurt together. Add Sweet Disposition chocolate stout, vanilla and the chocolate-butter mixture to a large bowl and stir to combine.

Sift sugar, cocoa powder, salt and flour and add to the liquid mixture.

Dissolve baking soda into warm milk. Add it to the batter and stir until evenly mixed — mixture is intended to be quite wet, do not be tempted to add extra flour.

Pour mixture into a lined cake tin and bake for 40-50 minutes or until you can stick a  toothpick in the middle and it comes out almost clean. Let cake cool on a cooling rack.

While cake is cooling, get started on the icing.

In a bowl, lightly whip the cream cheese until it’s smooth.

Sieve icing sugar over the cream cheese and beat them together. (If you are using a food processor, add icing sugar in first and blitz to remove lumps. Then add cream cheese.)

Add double cream to mixture and beat again until it is a spreadable consistency.

Once the cake has completely cooled, ice the top of the black cake to resemble the creamy head of our Sweet Disposition chocolate stout.

Dig in and enjoy.

This recipe was inspired This NZ Life.