Beer Cake

2/3 cup butter or oleo
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 sq. bitter choc.
2 1/4 cup flour
2 tsps. soda
1 cup beer
3/4 cup buttermilk
8 oz bottle maraschino cherries
1/4 cup cherry juice
1/2 cup chopped nutmeats

Cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs and melted chocolate and mix well. Sift flour and soda; add to creamed mixture alternately with beer and buttermilk. Add cherries, cherry juice and nutmeats. Mix well. Pour in 9 x 13" pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 40 mins.

Frosting:
8 oz cream cheese
1 stick butter
1 lb. powdered sugar
2 tsps. vanilla

Blend softened cream cheese, softened butter, powdered sugar and vanilla. Spread on cake.

Submitted by Dona Jahn, Tripoli, WI

Bloggers Note: I used "Point, Special Lager" beer from the Stevens Point Brewery.

It was only after starting to mix the ingredients did I realize that all of our 9 x 13" pans were in use with left over casseroles. So, I had to use three, eight inch round cake pans. As I learned, this cake is not meant to be a layer cake! It's very moist, and therefore very hard to stack. Keep that in mind as you gander at the pictures. It really does taste much better than it looks!

I was really happy with how the cake tastes and am excited to make it again in a 9 x 13" pan. Don't worry, I'll keep you posted.

I have to admit, I'm not a huge fan of maraschino cherries, but I did not mind them in the cake. I also used almonds for the "nutmeats".

When I make it again I will place the cherries in the pan once the batter has been poured in. They had a tendency to clump together so parts of the cake have lots of cherries, and other parts have none.

This definitely will be making a few appearances this summer and parties and cookouts... maybe paired with the Cherry Bounce!

Just in time for the Super Bowl!!!

Rye Bread Bowl

Bakery round rye or white bread

1 cup beer

1 small jar or tube of cheddar cheese

1 of bacon flavored cheese

1 of smoky flavored cheese

1 of port wine cheese

Carve the bread as you would a pumpkin, allowing 1" of bread on all sides and bottom with a good sized round opening at the top. Ahead of time melt the cheese and beer in a saucepan. Pour the mixture into the hollowed out bread and place on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Save the inside pieces of bread for dipping out the fondue-like cheese.

This is for special times -- a favorite of men! It goes a long way and I guarantee you'll hand out this recipe to your guests.

Submitted by Paula Lamberg -- West Bend, WI

Blogger's note: We used a sourdough round and found the recipe to work just fine. Our cheese of choice was Bucky Badger. They did not have a smokey flavored one, so I substituted garlic. However, true Wisconsinites will tell you that Kaukauna Cheese is the best stuff out there.

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We made this last night when we had my brother over for dinner. He's gluten intolerant, so we did him the favor of serving the cheese with tortilla chips. It was kind of like eating nachos at the ball game. All in all, pretty darn good and something we will be making again in the future.

In the end, we also decided that it might have been better if we hadn't used the sharp cheddar. It was just a little sharp for our taste. If you like sharp cheddar then go for it!

Also, the bread bowl was too small to accommodate all of that cheese and beer. When we make it again, we'll probably leave out one of the cheeses and reduce the amount of beer. I know, it's a travesty to ever reduce the amount of beer in anything, but we also thought the recipe was a little runny.