Bourbon Orange Cake Recipe
By Richard Thomas
Thanksgiving has come and gone, but the Holidays are around the corner now. What is more, wintertime is the season when you want big time sweets to go with hot tea.
One idea I had some years back was to take orange cake into “Cooking With Whiskey” territory. This recipe modifies a generic orange cake recipe by adding Bourbon to the glaze. I think a reasonably priced wheated Bourbon, such as Larceny or Rebel Yell, would work best here, since it would supplement the citrus flavor profile. However, if you don’t have a wheater on hand, any Bourbon will do.
Ingredients
CAKE:
1 cup of butter, softened at room temperature
1 big orange for juicing and shaving zest from the rind
2 cups of table sugar
3 cups of flour
1 tbsp of vanilla extract
1 tbsp of orange extract
5 eggs
1/4 tsp of salt
1 tbsp baking powder
GLAZE:
1 cup of butter
2/3 cup of table sugar
1/3 cup of Bourbon
1 tbsp grated orange zest (use the orange from above)
Preheat oven to 350F. Coat the bread pan with flour and grease, then add extracts and zest. Crack and add eggs one at a time, continuing to blend throughout. The add some of the flour and orange juice a bit at a time, continuing to blend, until all of that is in the mix as well. Finally, add salt and baking powder.
Pour the cake batter into the bread pan and put that in the oven. It should take roughly one hour to bake, but you can check to see if it’s done by sticking it with a toothpick. If the pick comes back clean, then the cake is thoroughly baked and not liquid inside.
Towards the end of your wait, prepare your glaze. Put a saucepan on the stove on low heat, and melt the butter. Add the sugar and stir. When the two are thoroughly mixed, turn off the heat and add more zest and the Bourbon.
Mix the butter and sugar together with a paddle until the concoction is fluffy. Remove the cake from the oven, remove it from the bread pan, and cover it with the glaze.
