How about Maple Pecan Whiskey Cake? Anyone? We thought so! Design Sponge featured ceramicist Molly Hatch’s homemade recipe and we thought best to share it with you.
Maple Pecan Whiskey Cake
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup of whiskey
- 1 box white/golden raisins
- 4 cups flour
- 8 cups pecans (2 pounds)
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp allspice
- 6 eggs
- 3/4 lb butter, room temperature (if you substitute margarine for butter, use 2 sticks of margarine to 1 stick of butter)
- 2 1/4 cups sugar
- 1 cup dark REAL maple syrup (I use grade “B”, as it has more flavor for cooking!)
Note from Kristina: This cake may look involved, but it isn’t. It does, however, help to have all of your ingredients prepared before you start working.
Instructions
Preparing the oven and the baking pans:
1. Heat the oven to 250ºF/120ºC.
2. Line four 8” x 4” x 4” (1-lb. capacity) loaf pans with parchment paper (do not butter the paper). Alternatively, use disposable paper wrappers (which are great for gifting later). The number of wrappers you need will depend on their size.
Assembling a few ingredients:
1. In a medium-sized bowl, mix baking soda and raisins with whiskey. Set aside.
2. In a larger bowl, combine pecans, flour and spices. Toss well in order to coat pecans and with flour and spices. Set aside.
3. Set aside the largest bowl you have (gigantic). You will need to work with this later.
4. Separate the eggs.
Making the cake:
1. In the bowl of a mixer, cream butter and sugar.
2. Once the mixture is fluffy, add the egg yolks a bit at a time until the mixture is homogenous. Be sure to stop the mixer periodically and scrape the bottom, sides and beater of the bowl.
3. Give the whiskey/raisin/soda mixture a good stir, and then slowly add it to the mixture followed by the syrup.
4. With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients until well blended. Stop the mixer to scrape down the beater and sides of the bowl. Mix for an additional 30 seconds, and then move the mixture to the gigantic bowl.
5. With the balloon whisk attachment (or a hand mixer), beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gently fold them into the wet mixture. (You will see why you needed a gigantic bowl at this point.)
6. Divide the batter among your cake pans.
7. Working very quickly, place a roasting pan filled with water in the bottom of the oven. Then put your loaf pans in (on the racks, not in the water!) and bake at 250º for 2.5 hours. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the center of one of the loaves comes out clean. Keep your eye on the water level in the roasting pan; you may need to add a little water if it all evaporates. When opening the oven, be careful of the steam that has formed inside.
8. Once out of the oven, cool completely on a rack. Wrap loaves well. As with most fruit cakes, this tastes better a day later. It also freezes well! If eating immediately, keep in the refrigerator.
*For a delicious gluten-free pumpkin pancake recipe (perfect accompaniment to real maple syrup) visit here.
Photo Design Sponge.
