By Emily Del Bel

I’ve been gradually getting into the holiday spirit. This is a fairly new thing for me. I used to work in retail, and let me tell you, when you get holiday shipments in July, start putting up holiday displays in October, and have to listen to Christmas music (including all twelve versions of The Little Drummer Boy) from the day after Thanksgiving until New Year’s, you are NOT a big fan of the holidays.

The first year that I went back to school, it really caught me off guard how little exposure the average person gets to the things that had annoyed me so much. By the time the second year rolled around, I was out there with the rest of them putting up a Christmas tree and *gasp* singing along to White Christmas when I heard it while shopping.

As school progressed (and we moved a million times), I got rid of most of our decorations. This time of year has a tendency to be really busy, so we haven’t had a tree in a while. I still like celebrating the holidays though…And what better way to celebrate than making the apartment smell like cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice? Well Jubelale of course.

Jubilale is a seasonal beer put out by Deschutes Brewery  of my beloved home state of Oregon. It’s a Strong Ale that (I’ve been told) has a slightly different recipe every year, but it’s always spicy, malty, slightly sweet, and well-hopped (For a better description and reviews, see Beer Advocate).  This year Jubelale is celebrating its 25^th Anniversary, so I was really excited to see it in stores around Thanksgiving. It’s been a staple in the fridge since then and probably will be until it’s off the shelves for another year.  *preemptive sniff*

I really do love this beer, so when my husband suggested a recipe posted by O’Dell Brewery (another fantastic brewery from Colorado) that used their Isolation winter ale to make a spice cake, I knew I had to try making a Jubelale cake.

Now, I’ll be honest, I made a lot of changes to the original recipe and, while it turned out delicious, it wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for. I converted it from a loaf cake to cupcakes, so I expected a denser texture. They were pretty fluffy, and as you can see, they collapsed in the oven (probably because I overfilled them a bit). I got a bit distracted and accidentally let them cool in the tins, so I had to pry them out, making a bit of a mess as I did so. I added a beer glaze and some powdered sugar topping to make them pretty; because what doesn’t look pretty when covered in powdered sugar snow?

They definitely need more work before I call Deschutes and tell them about my recipe (I kid), but if you have time to do so, try it out and let me know what you think!

Recipe:

Adapted from Odell Brewing