Liqueur Cakes
Ingredients
- 8 eggs
- 2 2/3 cups sugar
- 3 1/2 cups flour ⓘ
- 1 teaspoon baking powder ⓘ
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup heavy cream ⓘ
- 1 vanilla beans or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract ⓘ
- 3/4 cup butter, melted, cooled to room temperature ⓘ
- Syrups ⓘ
- 3 cups sugar ⓘ
- 3/4 cup light corn syrup ⓘ
- 1 1/4 cups water ⓘ
- 1 3/4 1 3/4 cups Frangelico (rum and brandy while not really liqueurs, also work well in these cakes) or 1 3/4 cups Grand Marnier (rum and brandy while not really liqueurs, also work well in these cakes) ⓘ
- 1/3 cup almonds, toasted (for Amaretto cake) ⓘ
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 4 loaf pans.
- Split open vanilla bean and scrape seeds into cream.
- Drop pod into cream and heat until scalding. Let cool.
- Whisk together the eggs, sugar and salt until well blended.
- Sift the flour and baking powder together.
- Whisk the sifted dry ingredients into the egg/sugar mixture just until blended.
- Remove (and discard) the vanilla bean pod from the cream, and whisk cream into the batter.
- Gently mix in the melted butter, pour batter into the prepared loaf pans and bake for 50-60 minutes or until golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean.
- While cake is baking, prepare syrup by combining sugar, water and corn syrup in a heavy saucepan. Stir mixture over medium-high heat until it comes to a simmer.
- Continue to heat (WITHOUT FURTHER STIRRING or your finished product will have sugar crystals!) until mixture comes to a full boil.
- Cover (also important to avoid those nasty sugar crystals) and continue to boil until all sugar is dissolved and liquid is clear, about a minute.
- Remove from heat and let cool for about 5 minutes.
- Stir in liqueur.
- After removing cakes from the oven, allow them to cool in pan for about 5 minutes.
- Run a knife around the edges of the pan and turn cakes out, then immediately return cakes to pans.
- Use a thin wooden skewer to poke numerous holes into the cake, about 1 inch apart. The holes should go all the way from the top to the bottom of the cake. Pour 1/4 syrup mixture over each cake and, if desired, sprinkle with optional toppings.
- Let cool until the cakes have absorbed the syrup.
- Remove from pans.
- Note: If giving these cakes as gifts, you can use disposable aluminum foil loaf pans and give the cake in the pan.
Nutrition & Diet Analysis (per serving)
912
kcal
46% DV
Protein
Fat
Carbs
* % Daily Values based on a 2,000 calorie diet (FDA 2020).