Most of my favorite cakes are boozy: the mint mojito cake I made for my future children’s future pediatrician, the orange caramel cake whose recipe I really need to publish on here so I can link to it in the future, the Guinness Cupcakes whose presence at a Superbowl party ensured a Giants win, and that Bailey’s ice cream cake I made for BFKef’s birthday last year. For someone who drinks about twice a month and doesn’t eat gluten or sugar, I sure do spend a lot of time making those three things for other people’s consumption. Something to think about.
Or not.
Today’s recipe is brought to you, once again, courtesy of the good people at Tastespotting. Like the Guinness cupcakes above, I brought this cake to a Superbowl party, and you see how well that turned out for the Seahawks (sorry Peyton…there is room for only one Manning in my heart!). I followed the original recipe exactly except for the leavening, as I realized that my darling BFKef had used all the baking powder as a non-corosive drain cleaner and thus had to make a last minute substitution. My variation is below.
Not a particular time-consuming cake–but it takes 3-4 bowls and requires an electric mixer, so take note. This recipe doesn’t require any particular finesse and yields a full-flavored cake that is surprisingly not-that-sweet, considering all the sugar in it. I took a nibble “just to test” and ended up getting sucked into three (very large) pieces–so while you’re gathering all those mixing bowls, you better muster up some willpower.
Pecan Bourbon Pound Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1.5 tsp baking powder
- 3 c all-purpose flour
- 3 sticks butter, at room temp
- 1 c light brown sugar, lightly packed
- 3/4 c dark brown sugar, lightly packed
- 6 room-temperature eggs, separated
- 7 oz buttermilk (that’s just under a cup, folks)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 TBS bourbon whiskey
- 1 c chopped pecans, toasted and cooled
- 1/2 c white sugar
For the glaze:
- 1/4 c light brown sugar
- 1/4 c dark brown sugar
- 4 TBS butter
- 2 TBS water
- 1/4 c bourbon whiskey
Assembly:
1. Preheat the oven to 325. Grease a 10″ bundt pan. Toast your pecans and set aside to cool. Separate your eggs and bring to room temp. Meas
2. Sift together the salt, baking powder, and flour in a medium mixing bowl. In a separate bowl with an electric or hand mixer, beat together butter and brown sugars until light and fluffy. With mixer on med-low, slowly add egg yolks.
3.Alternate adding the flour mixture and buttermilk in 3 parts (half the flour mixture, slowly add the buttermilk, remainder of flour mixture). This whole alternative process should take less than 90 seconds. Mix in the vanilla, bourbon, and pecans all at once. You want to avoid overworking the batter here-so don’t dawdle about overmixing. You will have a very, very thick batter-that’s what we want.
4. In yet another mixing bowl, whip on high egg whites until frothy. Continuing to whip, add the white sugar very slowly. Continue beating the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Once stiff, fold egg whites into cake batter (if you don’t know what it means to folks, watch this video.) This was easier said than done- it isn’t you.
5. Pour batter into greased pan. Level with a spatula. Cook for 70 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
6. While cake is baking, combine glaze ingredients except for bourbon in a small sauce pan. Bring to a full boil, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat once it’s boiling and add bourbon, mix well. Spoon over cake while it’s still hot. I used about 1/2 this glaze and it was awesome- use your judgement about how much you want to add. Let cake cool completely before removing from pan.
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