Bourbon Cake
Marvelous Stuff!
Thanksgiving is America's best holiday. It's unencumbered with gifts and cards and similar commercial holiday paraphernalia. There is no long, drawn-out prelude to the holiday beginning after Labor Day. And although the point is giving thanks to whichever deity one believes in, it doesn't harp on the issue -- a shared prayer at the dinner table is generally regarded as sufficient. Following that prayer is the high point and main point of the holiday -- an over-the-top feast shared with family and friends. What more could one ask for? And why, if this is the way I feel, am I bringing it up a month early?
Bear with me.
Growing up, everyone in my house contributed something to the feast whether it was making cranberry relish or baking a pie. Lots of focused, shared activity and good smells. Around four in the afternoon, if it wasn't raining, my father would organize a walk. We'd tramp through the sere fields and bare woods of our farm. Often it was cold, but if it wasn't cloudy as well Dad would take pictures of us. (Something I particularly hated.) Then we'd return to a waiting fire and the last minute organization of the meal.
Like many families, the day after Thanksgiving marked the beginning of the Christmas season. Unlike most families this didn't mean shopping. Instead Mom and Dad would begin preparing the Christmas feast. Dad made his eggnog base (which then aged for a month) and a fruit cake. Mom made her mother's (Mummo's) Bourbon Cake.
With an electric mixer, she'd beat the butter and sugar together in a large stainless steel bowl and then mix in the eggs, flour, and bourbon producing an unremarkable cake batter. Then Dad would haul down "the big bowl" for the final step.
The big bowl, cut from a single block of mahogany, was about 20" in diameter and about 7" deep. It needed to be big to accommodate the exertions required to incorporate a pound of nuts and a pound-and-a-half or raisins in a single bowl of batter. Once mixed, the cake went into a tube pan and then baked for 3 1/2 hours, filling the house with the most wonderful odors.
When the cake had cooled it was doused with more bourbon, wrapped in aluminum foil, and sealed in a cake tin. Then, once a week until Christmas, the cake would be uncovered and doused with more bourbon. Although potent, even as kids we were permitted a very thin slice of it when it was finally served. We loved it. In fact, everyone who tried it loved it. The cake was rich, moist, spicy, chewey, and pungent with bourbon. Marvelous stuff!
I've posted the recipe before, but I wanted to post it again -- and do so in time, for those of you interested in a holiday cake recipe dating back to the early 1900s (or earlier), to make it. Note: a good stand mixer obviates the need for "the big bowl."
Thanksgiving is America's best holiday. It's unencumbered with gifts and cards and similar commercial holiday paraphernalia. There is no long, drawn-out prelude to the holiday beginning after Labor Day. And although the point is giving thanks to whichever deity one believes in, it doesn't harp on the issue -- a shared prayer at the dinner table is generally regarded as sufficient. Following that prayer is the high point and main point of the holiday -- an over-the-top feast shared with family and friends. What more could one ask for? And why, if this is the way I feel, am I bringing it up a month early?
Bear with me.
Growing up, everyone in my house contributed something to the feast whether it was making cranberry relish or baking a pie. Lots of focused, shared activity and good smells. Around four in the afternoon, if it wasn't raining, my father would organize a walk. We'd tramp through the sere fields and bare woods of our farm. Often it was cold, but if it wasn't cloudy as well Dad would take pictures of us. (Something I particularly hated.) Then we'd return to a waiting fire and the last minute organization of the meal.
Like many families, the day after Thanksgiving marked the beginning of the Christmas season. Unlike most families this didn't mean shopping. Instead Mom and Dad would begin preparing the Christmas feast. Dad made his eggnog base (which then aged for a month) and a fruit cake. Mom made her mother's (Mummo's) Bourbon Cake.
With an electric mixer, she'd beat the butter and sugar together in a large stainless steel bowl and then mix in the eggs, flour, and bourbon producing an unremarkable cake batter. Then Dad would haul down "the big bowl" for the final step.
The big bowl, cut from a single block of mahogany, was about 20" in diameter and about 7" deep. It needed to be big to accommodate the exertions required to incorporate a pound of nuts and a pound-and-a-half or raisins in a single bowl of batter. Once mixed, the cake went into a tube pan and then baked for 3 1/2 hours, filling the house with the most wonderful odors.
When the cake had cooled it was doused with more bourbon, wrapped in aluminum foil, and sealed in a cake tin. Then, once a week until Christmas, the cake would be uncovered and doused with more bourbon. Although potent, even as kids we were permitted a very thin slice of it when it was finally served. We loved it. In fact, everyone who tried it loved it. The cake was rich, moist, spicy, chewey, and pungent with bourbon. Marvelous stuff!
I've posted the recipe before, but I wanted to post it again -- and do so in time, for those of you interested in a holiday cake recipe dating back to the early 1900s (or earlier), to make it. Note: a good stand mixer obviates the need for "the big bowl."
Mummo's Bourbon CakeMy mother no longer makes the cake, but I have her tube pan and her recipe and I'm trying to make it every year and share it with my parents and siblings. Fortunately, it's pretty much immune to spoiling so mailing it to Vermont or Virginia isn't a problem. And given that I made it almost a month early this year, it should be particularly well-seasoned.
1 c butter -- softened
2 c sugar
4 c flour -- sifted
4 ea eggs
1 lb pecan pieces
1 1/2 lb white or golden raisins
1 c bourbon
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp ground nutmeg
1 tbsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
Heat oven to 275F. Sift 1 cup flour and mix with nuts and raisins. Sift remaining flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and soda together. Grease a tube pan and line bottom with parchment paper.
Cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, making sure each is incorporated before adding the next one. Alternately add bourbon and flour. Add nuts and raisins.
Pour into tube pan and bake 3 1/2 hours. Remove from oven and cool thoroughly.
Sprinkle generously with additional bourbon and wrap in aluminum foil with a couple of apple wedges to keep it moist. Each weekend leading up to Christmas, unwrap cake and sprinkle again with additional bourbon.
24 Comments:
Wow. Sounds amazing. And such a fine combination of tradition and good food!
This one I may have to try....
What brand of bourbon do you use? Does it matter?
Richmond,
For drinking, I like Evan Williams, but the brand in the cake doesn't matter.
That's wonderful!
I always wanted my family to have traditions like that, but no one else bought into it (I'm so stuck in the 40's and 50's; blame all those B&W movies I watched as a kid).
The closest I've come to traditon/ritual in my own little family is watching holiday movies Christmas eve...start with White Christmas, work in Christmas in Connecticut if possible, and any other pre-1960 film of appropriate content if anyone's still awake for it.
Stephanie,
I try to watch White Christmas most years.
This looks like it could beat the pants off any fruitcake I've ever tried. I just might give it a try this Xmas - thanks for sharing such an important family recipe!
(p.s. how do you think it would work with whiskey?)
Melissa,
Fruit cake isn't even in the same league with this confection.
If by "whisky" you mean Scots whisky I would recommend one with a notable sherry component. Cognac would also work.
Okay, you obviously convinced me since at the supermarket this evening a pound of pecans and a bottle of jim beam mysteriously made their way into my cart... :) I'll let you know the outcome, though it will obviously be a while until the full report can be given!
Melissa,
[chuckle] Good things come to those who wait.
I just hapened on your site today. Although I have already celebrated Thanksgiving, living in Canada, I still really enjoyed this story. I loved every delicious detail. It was a perfect prelude for Christmas. Thank you for sharing.
Sarah Lou,
And, because the cake is for Christmas, you've still got plenty of time to make it.
This is a great story, Kevin. Maybe I'll give it a shot. :)
That apple ricotta cake looked awesome too.
Happy almost Thanksgiving!
Andrea
Alanna,
The bourbon cake is really easy to make -- if you have a good stand mixer.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, for posting this recipe!!!
Kevin,
Here it is December 17, and I have just now received the recipe for your delicious-sounding bourbon cake. Is it too late to make this for Christmas?
Marilyn
Kevin,
Here it is December 17, and I have just now received your recipe for the delicious-sounding bourbon cake. Is it too late to make this for Christmas?
Marilyn
Kevin,
Here it is December 17, and I am just now getting your delicious-sounding bourbon cake recipe. Is it too late to make it for Christmas?
Marilyn
Marilyn,
Obviously you can still make it, but the long, slow steep in bourbon is what makes it extraordinary.
I have been looking for a lost recipe of my mom’s for a very similar cake, I am hoping this will do the trick! I have had the raisins, pecans, and cherries soaking in Old Granddad’s for a week or more. When I was a kid my mom used Jim Beam… Wonderful! Thanks for the story too!
A late update from someone who actually tried this recipe. I made two of these cakes at the same time last Christmas for my bourbon-loving friends, and doused it generously with bourbon every week from late November until Christmas. It turned out more like a fruitcake than I expected, and--although it was moist and deliciously carmelized on the outside (from the dousing)--the inside was kind of dry. I made it in a tube pan and kept it tightly sealed and wrapped, but the bourbon didn't penetrate very far into the cake. If I make it again, I'll put some holes in it to get the bourbon down into the center of the cake. That would make a big difference, I think. I also substituted regular raisins for some of the white raisins because I ran out, which was a mistake. The brown raisins were too strong-tasting. This makes a huge cake, and one would have been enough for my gift-giving needs had I cut it into wedges. It's good served with vanilla ice cream. Thanks for the recipe!
Anon,
The holes are a great idea -- one of those palm-to-the-forehead moments.
And yes, the cake is not only big but so rich that a little bit goes a long way, _don't_ try making smaller cakes next year, my mother tried that and the cakes cooked too quickly. A big cake is far superior and my siblings (and kith) get a wedge of cake. Not elegant in presentation, but elegant in taste.
Question-
During the re-applications, how much bourbon should be applied? 1/4c.? 1/2c.? More? Please give a general guidline to follow.
Thanks and happy holidays. (I'd like to make this for Valentine's Day)
CJ,
I've never measured, I just add "enough." But at a guess, something like 1/3 of a cup.
This recipe is very similar to the one my grandma passed down the family. My dad said he remembers her mixing the fruit and batter, taking a coffee can and putting it in the middle of her washtub and baking it in her woodstove on slow all day! She would then "douse it with bourbon weekly till Christmas.
I have made her recipe every Christmas for many years I bake the cake in aluminum loaf pans after Halloween and soak it in Jim Beam till Christmas.I poke about 9 holes in the tops of the cakes an wrap the pans in foil. My grandmas original recipe makes 25 lbs so she must have made one BIG fruitcake!
Anon,
It's a heavy cake, but that does sound huge.
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