Happy Hop Day! The final Potosi Snake Hollow IPA

Today (conveniently  timed with National Craft Beer Week) is the conclusion to our six week series with the Potosi Snake Hollow IPA.  Primarily because I just polished off the six pack I’d bought.  We’re going to do another round of beer and food pairing, and this one was inspired by Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher, in which he says, “Dessert works beautifully with beer.  In case you missed that, let me reiterate:  beer is fantastic with dessert!”

Today we’re doing cake, and that’s really all about economics.  I enjoy the occasional cake, but on the whole, cake doesn’t really get me going.  But since I wanted to drink my Snake Hollow with a variety of deserts, my shopping lead me to an important discovery - if you’re one guy drinking one beer and you want to sample a selection of desserts, it’s not easy to do on a budget.  Although there is an increasing number of single-serving desserts in stores these days, there aren’t many that are both inexpensive and decent quality. (No surprise - “You get what you pay for” typically holds true for food.)  I aimed for middle ground and erred on the side of “I like to put gas in my car,” which means I went with frozen cakes from Pepperidge Farm and Sara Lee.  Not bad brands, but I don’t think of “frozen” and “cake” as being paired unless “ice cream” separates them.

Anywho, I picked up:

• A Pepperidge Farm Coconut cake - white cake with coconut filling and shredded coconut sprinkled on the frosting
• A Pepperidge Farm German Chocolate cake - chocolate and coconut
• A Sara Lee Carrot Cake - carrots/pineapple, walnuts spices and cream cheese

An important lesson that I learned is about the way that come at food and beer pairings.  Either I’m going to need a way to get people to come over so I can justify the expense of better quality food, or I’m going to need to limit myself.  Party anyone?

Carrot Cake
I know there are plenty of people who don’t care for carrot cake. I do, but it has to be good. I’ve had disappointing carrot cake in the past. This one was okay, but I found it just a little bland. The cake itself was dense and moist, which was good. There were definitely walnuts in it, and the frosting had a nice cream cheese flavor and texture.

• Beer first, then cake - The spice of the carrot cake was replaced by the hoppiness of the beer for a little bit, but then the hoppiness faded and the full on carrot cake flavor took over.  It didn’t detract from the beer, but it didn’t add anything to it.  The combination with the cake was nice, but it didn’t add too much to the cake - although after I finished the cake, there was still a hint of the beer’s maltiness that was very nice.
• Cake first, then beer - Now this was interesting, the carrot cake sweetness and carrot-ness blended nicely with the maltiness of the beer; and the spice of the cake and the hoppiness of the beer blended nicely.  It wasn’t overly bitter, but I think that each drew the sweetness out in the other.  This was really good.
• Both together - This was much the same as starting with cake and then washing it down with beer; but with the full-on sweetness of the frosting in my mouth, the leading flavor from the beer was tartness.  This was a good combination

German Chocolate Cake
As a cake, it was okay. As a frozen cake it was good. As a German Chocolate cake it was disappointing. The cake was light and fluffy, but not moist. And it was too fluffy for what I expected. The chocolate flavor was mediocre where I expected richness. The frosting was smooth and creamy. All in all, it was an okay cake, but we I think the name was a bit misleading.

• Beer first, then cake - It tasted like beer and cake.  It tasted good, but neither noticeably added or detracted anything from the other.
• Cake first, then beer - The sweetness of the cake overcame the flavor of the beer.  There was a moment of sourness at the back of my palate from the beer that was a little unpleasant, but it faded quickly into the bitterness of the hops and then I was left with the solid malty flavor in the after taste.  Not bad, but not great.
• Both together - The sweetness of the cake still in my mouth prevented that sourness from surfacing (or what sourness was there was pleasant and at the front of my mouth).  This was a real nice combination.  The cake took the prime position, but the sweet maltiness with a little bitter bite and a solid malty aspect finished the flavors.  Very good.

Coconut Cake
It was a white cake that looked a lot like an oversized Little Debbie snack cake. The cake itself was soft, light and spongy. The frosting was a little stiff, but I’m not sure if that was because of the style of frosting, because the cake had been frozen (although I had thawed it completely) or because of all the shredded coconut pieces on the frosting. The cake itself was not coconut, but the frosting had coconut and the filling between layers supposedly was coconut flavored. I could tell it was coconut, but the flavor wasn’t nearly as strong as I expected. Still, it was much better than I expected of a frozen cake.

• Beer first, then cake - After I put the cake in my mouth, the beer flavor faded to the background, leaving a noticeable combination of sweet from the cake mingling with the sweet and bitter of the hops in the beer.  Then, as that faded, I was left with the sweet coconut of the cake mingling with sweet hops and malty body of the beer.  That faded to leave an overall sweetness in my mouth.  This was very good.
• Cake first, then beer - The beer flavor was prominent after I took a sip, but the cake minimized the effect of the hops and emphasized the malt.   As the flavor faded, the sweet coconut of the cake remained after the flavor of the beer was gone, but I was still left with the pleasant mouth feel that you get from a good malty beer.  At this point, I realized that the beer is really emphasizing the coconut flavor of this cake far more than the cake by itself presented.  Interesting and tasty.  This was very good.
• Both together - Malt, coconut and sweet hops with barely any noticeable bitterness except for the hint left on the hoppy / coconutty aftertaste.  This was also very good.

Honestly, it seems that there is no wrong way to do an IPA with cake.  Granted there are other cakes out there, but I get the impression that they would all fare just as well.  After my mixed results with cheese, this was a food pairing that I can get behind (although hopefully not three pieces of cake in one sitting again - that’s a little too much sweet - even for me.)  Randy Mosher, you were right - Beer is fantastic with dessert!