Caution: Do not eat and drive!
I made this bourbon cake last year and shared it with other enthusiasts during a Christmas gathering. I think if we had forgone the bourbon and just had cake, it would have been enough alcohol for the evening as this cake is soaked in bourbon……YUM!
Another word of caution, using lots of bourbon while making this cake can lead to t
ippling during cooking. This is a very dense cake, sort of like fruit cake without the nasty fruit. Johnny Carson once said "The worst gift is a fruitcake. There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other." This is not that cake. I really enjoyed a slice of this cake in the morning with my coffee, only problem was, I had to have my wife drive me to work.
If you want to impress your friends and neighbors with an awesome holiday cake….give this one a shot.
1 c butter -- softened
2 c sugar
4 c flour -- sifted
4 ea eggs
1 lb pecan pieces
1 1/2 lb white or golden raisins (if you want to get crazy, soak the raisins in bourbon for 48 hrs)
1 c bourbon
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp ground nutmeg
1 tbsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
Heat oven to 275F. Sift 1 cup flour and mix with nuts and raisins. Sift remaining flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and soda together. Grease a tube pan and coat inside with light coating of flour.
Cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, making sure each is incorporated before adding the next one. Alternately add bourbon and flour. Add nuts and raisins.
Pour into tube pan and bake 3 1/2 hours. Remove from oven and cool thoroughly.
Sprinkle generously with additional bourbon and wrap in aluminum foil with a couple of apple wedges to keep it moist. Each weekend leading up to Christmas, unwrap cake and sprinkle again with additional bourbon. You can make this cake 4 weeks in advance, depending on how soaked in bourbon you want it.
When I made this cake, I basted it with Very Old Barton BIB for a full three weeks before serving which made the cake a no smoking zone. If you make it, let me know how it turns out.
My Aunt Marylou was a staunch Baptist and teetotaler. At Christmas, though, she made a marvelous fruit cake that was just saturated in bourbon. She refused to say what the "secret ingredient" was but everyone in the family could identify it as soon as we passed through her front door.
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