Irish Porter Cake with Tasmanian Leatherwood Honey

You may be asking, what does an importer of products from NZ and AUS have to do with St. Patrick’s Day? We considered the question as well, but then realized that we’re ALSO a family owned company in America and America is a melting pot of different races and cultures so it only makes sense to merge them in a delicious recipe! 

Also, we realized that our unique Leatherwood Honey took this cake over the top so that definitely sealed the deal. 

Traditionally, Porter Cake is baked to celebrate the feast day of St. Patrick aka St. Patrick’s Day and leading up to Christmas. We love it year-round because we get to use a cake mix and beer. Easily made dairy free, you can also make this cake a couple of weeks in advance & store in an airtight container. Just add a little whiskey or brandy each week to keep it moist!

Irish Porter Cake with Tasmanian Leatherwood Honey 

Ingredients

• 1 box of vanilla cake mix* (we used Miss Jones Organic Vanilla Cake Mix)
• 3 tbsp flour*
• ½ tbsp orange zest
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp cocoa powder (for color, optional)
• 3 large eggs*
• ¼ cup milk* (we used flax)
• ⅔ cup stout or porter ale* (we used Samuel Smith Organic Chocolate Stout)
• ½ cup butter* (we used Earth Balance sticks)
• 2 tbsp PRI Tasmanian Leatherwood Honey
• 1 cup raisins 
• 1 cup golden raisins 
• ¼ cup dried cranberries or currants

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to temperature on the cake mix box. Ours was 350ºF. Prepare a round springform pan or cake pan with parchment paper and oil.
2. Next, in a small saucepan melt the butter, milk and stout on medium/high heat until it comes to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Next, add in the dried fruit of choice, stir and cover with a lid and let it simmer for 5-10 minutes.
3. While the mixture is simmering, in a large bowl, combine vanilla cake mix with flour, the spices and orange zest and stir until well combined. 
4. Remove the mixture from heat and let it cool before pouring the dry ingredients into the wet. Stir until well incorporated and no clumps remain besides the fruit. 
5. Transfer the batter to a round pan with parchment and oil and bake for time instructed on the package or until a toothpick comes out clean. We filled ours ¾ of the way in a 7-inch springform pan. Ours baked for 40-45 minutes but time is dependent on cake mix.  
6. Remove and let cook for 10 minutes before topping with slicing and topping with honey. 

*Measurements are dependent on your cake mix. Use the measurements of eggs and butter that your box mix calls for. Ours called for 3 eggs, ½ cup butter and ½ a cup milk. We cut the milk measurement with the stout and added extra liquid (stout) along with an extra 3 tbsp of flour so the cake would have more flavor of the stout. Feel free to tweak the ratio of stout to milk based on preference and make sure your batter isn’t too liquidy*