This past Christmas, my younger brother got me a recipe book called Booze Cakes from Urban Outfitters. Booze and sweet treats together... you know how to cut to the core of me Baxter.
I hadn't had a chance to bake anything out of it, though - I live alone and having a cake lying around for me to aimlessly munch on is a recipe for disaster. But when the little bro decided to visit a few weeks ago, it was time. The book had all kinds of tasty, liquor-filled concoctions, but I chose the Long Island Iced Tea Cakes. He's still in college, so I figured it was apropos (and maybe I could reminisce about bad decisions made after Long Island Iced Teas, too?).
Now, we all know baking is not my strong suit. So how'd it come out? Delicious - I didn't screw it up! The way the book laid out all the recipes was so simple. In addition to the usual labels at the top of each cake (how long to bake, how easy - difficult, etc.), there was a Booze Meter - a smiley face ranging from a slight smirk to a full on cheeseball grin to show the amount of booze used. The Long Island Iced Tea cakes had a nice big grin, obviously! The recipe was fairly simple. I just bought a bunch of liquor nips, lemon juice and Coke...the rest of the ingredients I already had at home. The finished product tasted like a lemony pound cake with a nice little kick. Here's the recipe:
CAKE ingredients:
- 2 cups flour
- 1/2 tsp baing soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp gin
- 1 tbsp light rum
- 1 tbsp tequila
- 1 tbsp vodka
- 1 tbsp triple sec
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp cola, chilled
- 1 cyp sugar
- 1/2 cup milk
- 6 egg yolks
- 1 stick unsalted butter
SOAKING SAUCE ingredients:
- 1 tbsp gin
- 1 tbsp light rum
- 1 tbsp tequila
- 1 tbsp vodka
- 1 tbsp triple sec
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 tbsp cold cola
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and flour a 9x13 inch cake pan.
2. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl - set aside. In a measuring cup, combine vanilla, gin, rum, tequila, vodka, triple sec, lemon juice, cola, 1 tsp of the sugar, and milk.
3. In a mixing bowl, beat the egg yolks 5 minutes, or until thick and pale. Add 1/2 cup of the sugar and beat until yolks form a thick ribbon. Gradually beat in the butter and remaining sugar.
4. Beat in flour and milk mixtures in alternating additions. Pour batter into pan. Bake 20-30 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool completely.
5. While cake cools, combine all soaking sauce ingredients in the cleaned and dried cake pan. Cut cake into bite-sized pieces; return hem to the pan to soak up the sauce, about 30 minutes to one hour. To serve, arrange on a platter with cocktail picks.
Yum! It was really good and got approval from my brother and all my coworkers. Since it doesn't have any icing and isn't too sweet, it goes perfectly with coffee or tea. You could even have a piece for breakfast (it's 5 o'clock somewhere?).
I felt so accomplished baking a cake - maybe I'll become one of those people that makes cakes for everyone's birthdays and big occasions (...probably not). There's a few others that I definitely want to try out. The Honey Spice Beer Cake, Pink Champagne Cake, Mocha Rum Brownie Bites, and Margarita Cheesecake all sound promising. If you're looking to bake a cake with a boozy twist, give this book a shot.
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