Sweet ReciPEAs

Evil Treats from a Nice Person

Treats and bonus recipes right to your inbox every Wednesday.

Have a little cake with your bourbon….

So most of the people reading my blog today weren’t reading it back when it started, because, well, no one was. 😀 But sadly because of that some really great recipes get looked over. One of them is my Egg Nog Cake with Bourbon-Cream Cheese Frosting that I roll out each year for the holidays. I originally made and posted about it way back in December of 2006, so we are going way back in the Way Back Machine (if you are old, you might get the reference and how it relates to me). It’s become a tradition to make every year, and is requested often.

Egg nog was on sale this week and so I picked up some. Truthfully, I am not really an egg nog girl. I don’t drink it to drink it, but I do like the flavor it produces in desserts (well, most, not all). And in this cake you don’t really notice it all that much. You do however notice the frosting. My bff asked me “how did you get the frosting to taste like bourbon?” Simple silly, I added bourbon. 😉 If you aren’t too much of a bourbon fan you can drop back to 2 TBSP but really, I like it to have a little punch…it’s the holidays after all.

Now I know most of you are frantically cooking and baking right now and can’t be bothered with the idea of holiday parties and what not at this point in time. But when the time does come you are really going to want to make this. I normally just frost the top of this cake due to my lack of decorating skills, but the frosting recipe is for the full cake. Throw on some red and green sprinkles and you scream festive.

What about you? Are you a fan of egg nog? If not, egg nog desserts or lattes?


Egg Nog Cake with Bourbon-Cream Cheese Frosting

3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup egg nog
1 TBSP butter
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 325F.
In a large bowl, beat together the eggs and sugar until very thick; the batter should fall from the beaters in a thick ribbon. Beat in the vanilla.
While you’re beating the eggs and sugar, heat the egg nog and butter in a small saucepan to just simmering. Add the hot egg nog to the egg mixture in a slow, steady stream as you continue beating.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, stirring until they’re just combined.
Pour the batter into a lightly greased 9 inch cake round. Bake for 50 minutes, or until the cake is a deep golden brown and starting to pull away from the sides of the pan. Remove the cake from the oven and cool it in the pan for 10-15 minutes. Run a knife around the sides of the pan.

Bourbon Cream Cheese Frosting
3 1/2 TBSP bourbon (it’s one of the mini bottles)
12 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4cup butter, at room temperature
4-5 cups powdered sugar (will depend on how thick you like your frosting)

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and butter until soft.
Add the powdered sugar and beat to combine.
Add the bourbon and beat to combine.

Source: Inspired by Hot Milk Cake in the King Arthur’s Flour Baker’s Companion All Purpose Baking Cookbook

Stay updated!

My culinary concoctions and bonus recipes every Wednesday to your inbox.
Come to the Dark Side. We have cookies.

Comments

  2. I love it because it’s so festive and tasty-looking! I’m laughing about the comment for the Way Back Machine – 2 years ago seems like decades in blogging time. lol

    Reply

  5. Yum! By egg nog, you mean the non-alcoholic stuff that you buy in cartons, right? I imagine the real stuff with the eggs and booze would yield different results.

    Reply

  7. I don’t really like eggnog, but my husband loves it. So I’m sure we’ll have some in the fridge very soon. I’ve never tried to bake with it, but this cake looks like it would be a good place to start. I love the sprinkles. =)

    Reply

  8. I look boozy baked goods! It’s also really encouraging that some day if my blog makes it, I can use posts from the past year again without anyone but my parents and a couple of close friends noticing!

    Reply

  10. mmm this looks really good and i have recently discovered i like egg nog (thank you starbucks) but i only like egg nog steamers and egg nog ice cream…i havent tried straight up egg nog, but i really do want to make this cake!

    Reply

  11. Omg this looks amazing! And I’m pretty sure I have the same problem. No one reads my blog now but I bet by the time I finally get some readers they’ll have missed some great recipes haha!
    Thanks for sharing 🙂

    Reply

  13. Ooh love the look of that cake, Peabody!! I love eggnog any way at all – in a glass (with rum), in a latte or as an eggnog nanaimo bar. Haven’t really tried it in a cake but when I get home to Calgary for Christmas I’ll be trying this baby out! I’m glad you went in way back in the Way Back machine to get the recipe 🙂 Thanks!

    Reply

  15. Not a fan of egg nog at all. But I made an egg nog cake from Flo Braker last year and thought it was terrific. Turns out, like you, I like the flavor, just not the stuff. Bourbon does help…

    I’m behind in my blog reading. Sorry to hear that you are in a tough spot. I’m always here for a beer if you want.

    Reply

  16. Had to let you know…I made pumpkin bread this morning and when cutting into it discovered I had not cooked it enough. So I was trying to think of what to do and I thought of you and your love of all things bread pudding! So now, I am making pumpkin bread bread pudding!

    Reply

  20. My guys are big eggnog fans, especially my son. This would be an awesome cake to serve during the holidays. Thanks for the recipe, and have a great American Thanksgiving…we’ve already done the turkey holiday last month (Canada), but you have a longer period in which to eat and enjoy the rest afterwards!

    Reply

  24. I just got overly excited at the sight of those holiday sprinkles. I freaking LOVE egg nog. I had “adult” egg nog for the first time last year, and it was magical. I must try this cake. Thanks!!

    Reply

  26. LOVE egg nog! I used sneak and drink it right out of the carton as a kid! Is the cake overly sweet? I ask because there is quite a bit of sugar in the cake and the egg nog is VERY sweet also. Just checking!

    Reply

    • I don’t think it is too sweet, and people that have eaten the cake have never said anything. But that’s all a matter of taste I guess.

      Reply

  27. This looks so good! I actually just tried bourbon for the first time recently (and have loved eggnog for far longer than I’ve been legally drinking it).

    What’s the texture like? I usually make cakes with sour cream and I’m always worried that ones without it won’t be moist enough.

    Reply

  29. When made properly, this cake is delicious but be careful that your oven is set to the correct temp, that the baking pan is greased and floured, that it is not overfull, and to not overbake it. I’ve also found that I have better results with more butter in the batter: 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick)instead of just one.

    Since not all eggnogs are created equal, taste the eggnog first before using it in the cake recipe. The one I recently bought doesn’t have enough nutmeg – horrors!

    Rum instead of bourbon in the frosting is also good!

    The cake by itself is not overly sweet nor is the cream cheese frosting with or without liquor in it.

    Cheers!

    Reply

  31. In my family, we were always in the “boiled custard” camp, which sadly is non-alcoholic, as most of my family gatherings are. 🙁 I however, inexplicably became a lover of all things bourbon. So this cake, sounds right up my alley.

    And PS. I am a long-time reader of your blog, but I don’t think I even knew what a food blog was in 2006! So that’s for pulling it out of the “way back machine” archives.

    Reply

  36. There is a coffee shop local here that steams eggnog to make their eggnog lattes (instead of the big places that use syrup for the flavor).

    Though I’m not a huge eggnog fan, a bit of nog with some dark rum works for me!

    Reply

  37. I’m not a fan of eggnog but I tried the recipe anyway with great results. The cake is delicious and everyone loved the bourbon frosting.

    For some reason I was under the impression that this would make one 9 inch layer. I got one layer and 8 cupcakes which was perfect for my small office party.

    Reply

  38. I just wanted to say that I found your blog back in the day when it was Culinary Concoctions by Peabody and constantly revisited it. Today I saw this post and thought you should know that my birthday is 2 days before Christmas, and every single year since I’ve discovered this recipe, it’s been my birthday cake. My mom and I can hardly remember what recipe we used before finding this one. Thanks for the years of tasty celebration!

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *