In collaboration with Artisan Kallio Brewery.
There was a man, an officer for the army of Tsar, who took the painstaking task of traveling the 14 000 km journey from Kirgizia in the middle east all the way to Peking and documenting it with photos and his personal diary. His journey lasted over 2 years and he did it all horseback. Some knew him as “Madáhàn”, the man who rode between the clouds. I know him by another name.
While reading this man’s diary it becomes clear, that he was a man who greatly enjoyed not only the excitement of adventure, but also the comfort of a warm shed and good food when available. He also repeatedly expresses sincere admiration and astonishment over the remarkable hospitality he encountered in his travels.
It’s this man from whom Kallio Artisan Brewery and Birra Amiata have taken inspiration for their latest collaboration: Madáhàn Tropical Milk IPA. This beautiful ale comes out during the 100th anniversary of independent Finland, when celebration is going on all through the year. This is fitting, because Madáhàn Tropical Milk IPA is a great drink for celebration. It goes well with white meat and fish, but particularly well with desserts.
To the nose Madáhàn is fruity, I found grapefruit and mango in it, however not too much sweetness. The taste is in the beginning fruity, I found especially orange peel and honey, and towards the end the hops cut in and you’re off to a beautifully balanced finish. Overall the beer has a very balanced taste to it, and this is due the lactose used in the process. “Lactose smoothers the beer, reduces hop bitterness because to this beer we have used lot of hops that also give massive bitterness and aroma when used in big amounts. It also gives nice balance to body of the beer and little bit sweetness. So it unites the flavors and brings balance to the beer” Olavi Mensio from Kallio Artisan Brewery tells us. In fact, the beer has so smooth and almost round feeling in the mouth, that the quite high alcohol percentage ( 7%) is hard to tell from the taste. Like Lura, we also highly recommend all beer lovers to taste Madáhàn Tropical Milk IPA, share it with friends over a piece of cake or just by itself and show a level of hospitality that left a long lasting impression also to our hero mentioned in the beginning!
The orange peel in the taste inspired us to create this recipe to be enjoyed with Madáhàn. Try it out and let us know what you think!
Ps. If you didn’t yet get what was the name I was referring to, well… You figure it out. 😉
For this cake we used two 11,5 cm / 4 ½ inch pans. What to do if you don’t have such mini pans? Well, you have several options:
* Double the ingredients and use two bigger pans of 16 cm / 6 ½ inch
* Use a bigger pan and the same amount of ingredients and make a two layer cake
* Buy two small pans (smaller cakes look cute, it’s easier to frost them, serve many people because the are so tall and are still small enough to finish without fearing diabetes)
Did you know? By opening the recipe on Yum, you are able to see the recipe in US measurements 🙂
- 2 medium oranges (circa 500 g)
- Peel of one orange
- 80 g of caster sugar
- 600 ml of water
- Peel of one orange
- 30 g of caster sugar
- 100 g of butter
- 2 eggs
- 100 g of brown sugar
- 120 g all-purpose flour
- 30 g of cocoa powder
- 70 ml of milk
- 30 ml of Madáhàn Tropical Milk IPA (or another Milk IPA)
- ½ tsp of powdered sour orange **
- ½ tsp of baking soda
- ½ tsp of baking powder
- 100 g of butter at room temperature ***
- 50 g of powdered sugar
- 60 ml of heavy cream
- 100 g of cream cheese
- 1 tbsp of milk
- ¼ tsp vanilla extract
- Madáhàn Tropical Milk IPA or another Milk IPA to moisten the cake layers
- Cut the orange peel in long, thick strips being careful to avoid cutting also the white part because that would bring bitterness to the taste. Set aside the peel of one orange (we’ll need it later for the candied peels) and chop finely the peel of the other orange.
- Remove the white part from the oranges, chop them grossly and put them in a saucepan with the sugar and the finely cut peel.
- Let the marmalade boil for half an hour.
- Put the peel strips in a saucepan with half a liter of water and boil for 15 minutes.
- Discard the water, add the sugar and the remaining 100 ml of water and let boil for 15 to minutes or until the water won’t be evaporated and the peels will look shiny and covered with syrup.
- Roll the peels and let them cool.
- Preheat the oven to 175°C/350F.
- Melt the butter and beat it with the eggs and the sugar until they will reach a frothy texture.
- Add the flour, the cocoa powder, the milk and the beer and mix well.
- Add the baking soda, the baking powder and the powdered sour orange and mix.
- Grease two 11,5 cm (4 ½ inch) springform pans and divide the batter equally between the pans.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick won't come out of the cake clean. Let the cakes cool.
- Beat the butter and powdered sugar together until you’ll reach a smooth and creamy texture.
- Add the cream and whip for few minutes.
- Add the cream cheese, the milk and the vanilla extract and whip for few minutes. Set aside at room temperature.
- Once cooled, remove the caked from the forms and cut them into two lengthwise.
- Place the first cake layer on a plate or stand. Moisten it with some Madáhàn Tropical Milk IPA or another Milk IPA. Spread some orange marmalade on the cake layer and level it out. Spread some buttercream on the orange marmalade layer and level it out.
- Repeat this method with the second and third cake layers.
- Place the fourth cake layer on top, moisten it and spread the rest of the buttercream on top and on the sides of the cake.
- Place the candied orange peel rolls on the cake.
- Refrigerate the cake for half an hour so that it would stabilize.
** If you cannot find powdered sour orange where you leave, you could substitute it with a sprinkle of orange zest
*** Take the butter out of refrigerator at least an hour in advance.
jane
yummy!