Last Friday, I had an article in the San Francisco Chronicle on porters, tying together the style and George Washington’s well-documented love of them for Presidents’ Day. Since today is Washington’s actual birthday (at least under the converted Gregorian calendar), I thought I’d share the dessert recipe I came up with for the story, a variation on a porter float I called Washington’s Porter Float.

Pour a bottle of porter over vanilla ice cream, add a symbolic powdered wig of whipped cream and, because it’s Washington, put a cherry on top.

To which in the original I added. “A spoon is recommended for chopping it down.” Understandably it got cut. It was more than a little overly cutesy. But I still liked it. Happy Washington’s birthday.