Vegan MoFo - Alcoholic Ginger Beer (Bread)

Someone from Cake Liberation Front posted in the giveaway thread about a giveaway they're doing, so I checked out the blog.  They had a recipe for Alcoholic Ginger Beer Bread - a cake-like quick bread with ginger, ginger beer, and chocolate - so I decided that I needed to give it a try.

The first step here was finding Hollows Alcoholic Ginger Beer as Crabbie's is, apparently, not vegan.  I'd never seen it before, so I contacted customer service, who sent me a list of retailers the next day.  The contact person also said they'd send me some free samples if I found it in a shop that wasn't on their list.  Well, after I bought it from Earthy Foods & Goods (on my first visit; I also bought my favourite rooibos chai and my favourite dark chocolate - The Chocolate Tree's sea salt and caramel dark chocolate), I happened to spy a bottle in Real Foods (which is kinda funny because I didn't even think of looking there, even though it's exactly the kind of thing they'd sell and I'm there a couple times a week).  And, true to her word, the contact person asked me for my address to send me some samples!  I eagerly await them - it'll brighten my work day, since that's where they'll be delivered.

Anyway, I digress.  So, I made the bread, and I had some ginger beer left over.  I don't think I've ever had straight alcoholic ginger beer, but I've had the non-alcoholic stuff.  I like it enough, but only sparingly, as I find it has a bit of an ohgoditburns! quality to it.  This, however, did not taste like burning.  It has a mild, pleasant flavour, definitely ginger but not so strong that it hurts, but it also doesn't taste like alcohol.  I would definitely order this in a pub - it's more refreshing than cider and less vile than beer.  Unfortunately, I only had about 1/4 of a bottle left, and Mike drank most of it, so I couldn't judge the level of buzz one might get from it.

On to the bread:

I like it a lot, though I wish it had come out a little more cake-like.  As you can see, it's loaded with chocolate chips (which I used in place of chunks because I'm lazy and had about a kilo of chips vs no bars/chunks), and the chocolate flavour almost overwhelms the ginger.  Despite having 2 tsp of ginger and 12 oz of ginger beer, the ginger flavour is actually pretty subtle.  I'm hoping that will change with a bit of a sit.

BTW, the company that makes the alcoholic ginger beer is owned by Fentimans, who bring us Curiosity Cola and Victorian Lemonade.  They make good stuff.

I'm super excited about tomorrow - I'm going to Glasgow for eating, meeting up for cake and beverages, and going to museums.  Two things - new menu at Heavenly, and AC/DC exhibition at the Kelvingrove!  More about that when I get home tomorrow evening!