This Kentucky bourbon cake is a unique fruit cake soaked in whiskey. You should aim to make this dessert a month in advance — if you can wait that long, which I can't! You'll need some cheesecloth for giving this cake its trademark bourbon wrap.
Ingredients
- Bourbon: 2 cups
- ounces golden raisins: 8 piece
- ounces red candied cherries: 16 piece (halved)
- butter: 0.75 pound
- white sugar: 2 cups
- egg yolks: 6 piece
- egg whites: 6 piece
- packed brown sugar: 2 cups
- ground nutmeg: 2 tsp
- baking powder: 1 tsp
- all-purpose flour: 5 cups
- pecans: 1 pound (chopped)
- Bourbon: 1 cup
Metric Conversion
Stages of cooking
-
Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F (135 degrees C). Grease a 10-inch tube pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.
-
Soak raisins and cherries in 2 cups of bourbon or whiskey for 48 hours. Before making cake, drain well and reserve bourbon.
-
In a separate bowl, mix flour, nutmeg, and baking powder. Set aside.
-
In a small bowl, cream butter with white sugar. In a separate small bowl, cream yolks and brown sugar until very light.
-
In a large bowl, combine two sugar mixtures and blend well.
-
Alternately, add flour mixture and reserved bourbon in three stages, mixing well with each addition.
-
Add soaked fruit and fold in. Add nuts and fold in.
-
In a clean medium bowl, whip egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold into batter until evenly distributed; pour into the prepared 10-inch tube pan.
-
Bake cake in the bottom of the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 4 to 5 hours. Ovens vary, so it may take longer than 5 hours.
-
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes before turning out. When almost cool, brush sides and inside hole heavily with bourbon. Wrap cake with a bourbon-soaked cheesecloth, then with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight and saturate again with bourbon. Cover with plastic wrap and then with foil and store for at least 2 weeks in a cool, dry place.
