Bourbon Cake

This cake was a Kentucky bourbon cake, but I didn’t use Kentucky bourbon, so I’m just going to call it a bourbon cake. I mentioned recently that we went and had lunch in Woodinville, WA, which has tasting rooms for many of the wineries in the state. In addition to wineries, local distilleries have set up in the area. We visited Woodinville Whiskey Company and picked up some of their bourbon whiskey. It’s great stuff! 

My friend at work really likes bourbon and her birthday was coming up so I went looking for a bourbon cake. One thing I have noticed is that many cakes and cookies with alcohol contain so little that you can’t taste it. That’s ok, but this was one cake that I really wanted to taste the bourbon. I found a cake, and my husband found this one and I decided this would be great. I checked to make sure that my friend liked dates; you could always omit them if you wanted. And since this cake contains nearly a cup of bourbon, I figured you would be able to taste it!

This cake came together well, the batter was very light and fluffy. I baked mine the longer side of the baking time. Since I knew I was going to soak the cake in liquid, I wanted it to be cooked all the way through! The original recipe had you soak the cake in the cake, which I did. It made it very hard to remove the cake from the pan, so if you’d prefer to remove the cake from the pan first, that would certainly work. I added a simple glaze make with powdered sugar and some of the remaining soaking syrup (mainly to cover the fact that my cake didn’t come out the pan 100% cleanly.) Boy, this was a fantastic cake! Everyone loved it. I warned everyone that the cake contained quite a bit of uncooked alcohol, but no one seemed to mind.

Bourbon Cake

3 cups cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

4 eggs, room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup buttermilk, room temperature

1/3 cup bourbon

1/2 cup dates, chopped

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup bourbon

1 cup powdered sugar

2-3 tablespoons reserved bourbon soaking syrup

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter or spray with nonstick cooking spray a large Bundt pan.

In a medium bowl, combine the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for one minute after adding each egg. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Stir in the vanilla.

In a measuring cup, combine the buttermilk and bourbon.  With the mixer running on low, add 1/3 of the flour and then half of the bourbon mixture. Add another 1/3 of the flour mixture and the remaining bourbon mixture. Finally, add the remaining flour mixture. Stir just until the flour is incorporated. Fold in the dates with a spatula. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan.

Bake for 50-55 minutes until golden brown and a thin knife inserted in the center of the cake come out clean.  Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.  While the cake is cooling, make the bourbon soaking syrup.

In a small sauce pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the sugar and vanilla and stir. Remove the pan from the heat momentarily and add the bourbon. Return the pan to the heat and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. 

With the cake still in the pan, use a long, thin knife to poke holes in the cake. Pour ¾ of the soaking syrup over the cake, allowing the syrup to soak in. Allow the cake to cool completely. Reserve the remaining glaze. (Alternatively, you could remove the cake from the pan, poke holes in the cake and then pour the soaking syrup over the cake. The cake won’t soak up as much of the syrup, but it will still be good.)

Remove the cake from the pan. Combine the powdered sugar with 2-3 tablespoons of the bourbon soaking syrup and whisk to combine. Drizzle the glaze over the cake. Allow the glaze to set before serving. 

Recipe from Bake it with Booze