Chocolate Stout Cake and Left Handed Giant

This is what happens when you throw a bold Bristol stout into a punchy chocolate cake batter. You get some sort of bar brawl with a boozy, creamy, cocoa-nibbed collaboration. Our pals at Left Handed Giant have given us an ingredient that tastes as if someone poured a pint of deep, dark joy straight into your dessert plate.

We’ve long admired LHG from afar. Their Deeper Water Stout is like diving headfirst into a velvet swimming pool. Thick, roasty, a bit mysterious, and so moreish. Naturally, we thought, it's the best choice to pour that into a chocolate cake that's topped with cream cheese frosting, malt extract, and a good crunch of raw cacao nibs. Obviously we were right.

So we baked the thing, packed it up in the finest cardboard, and made a mini road trip from Exeter to Bristol, dodging tractors and eating emergency brownies on the M5. We delivered the cake right into the welcoming arms of the LHG brewpub, which, by the way, is an absolute gem tucked by the water with wood-fired pizzas that made us consider moving in permanently.

They don’t sell the cake at the bar, before you get your hopes up. But you can sink a few pints of the stout that inspired it and wrap your lips around some of the best pizza we’ve ever eaten outside of Naples.

We sunk a couple glasses of Deeper Water stout, passed slices of cake around like it was a birthday party for beer nerds, and talked about fermentation, flavour and whether Bokman is the best restaurant in Bristol.

So while this particular collab-cake won’t be on their menu, it is on ours and we like to think it carries a little bit of Bristol spirit with every slice. Namely: bold, rich, a bit irreverent and creative, and pairs well with a cold pint and a warm evening.

What makes the collaboration even more worthy is the fact that these guys give a damn about their community and the planet.

LHG is proudly founder, employee, and community-owned. In 2019, they raised over £1 million through crowdfunding, with more than 80% of their 1,500 shareholders residing in Bristol. This structure ensures that the people who work in, use, and enjoy their premises have a stake in the company's success.

LHG is a certified B Corporation, meeting high standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, sustainability and transparency. They focus on reducing the distance between tank and tap, ensuring fresh beer and minimising environmental impact. 

Cheers to LHG for letting us gatecrash with cake. Next round’s on us.