A wonderfully boozy bourbon cake, much like its rum cousin.
Ingredients:
For the Cake:
- 3½cupssifted cake flour
- 1¼teaspoonsbaking powder
- ¾teaspoonbaking soda
- 1¼teaspoonskosher salt
- 1¼cupsunsalted butter(at room temperature)
- 1¾cupsgranulated sugar
- ⅔cuplight brown sugar
- 5eggs(at room temperature)
- ⅓cupbourbon
- 1¼cupsbuttermilk(at room temperature)
For the Glaze:
- 7tablespoonsunsalted butter
- 1cupgranulated sugar
- ⅓cupbourbon
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 12-cup fluted Bundt pan; set aside.
- Sift together the flour, baking powder and baking soda into a medium bowl. Add the salt and whisk to combine; set aside.
- With an electric mixer, cream together the butter and both sugars on medium-high speed for 5 minutes, until fluffy, stopping occasionally to scrape the sides of the bowl. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition and scraping the sides of the bowl before adding the next.
- Combine the buttermilk and bourbon in a small bowl. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the buttermilk-bourbon mixture in two parts, beginning and ending with the flour. After each addition, mix until just barely blended and stop and scrape the bowl. Stop the mixer before the last of the flour has been incorporated and complete the blending by hand with a rubber spatula.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread it out evenly. Bake until the cake is golden brown and springs back when lightly pressed with a finger, 40 to 45 minutes.
- Towards the end of the baking time, prepare the glaze. Combine the butter, sugar and bourbon in a small saucepan over low heat until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves, whisking to combine.
- Remove the cake from the oven and immediately poke holes all over the top of the cake using a long skewer. Pour three-quarters of the glaze slowly over the cake, allowing it to seep into the holes. Place the cake on a wire rack and cool for 30 minutes, then turn it out onto a serving platter. Immediately brush the remaining glaze all over the top and sides of the cake (if the glaze has thickened, rewarm over low heat). Serve the cake warm or at room temperature. Leftover cake can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Recipe Notes:
Nutritional values are based on one serving
Nutrition:
Calories: 787kcal
Fat: 34g
Saturated fat: 20g
Cholesterol: 167mg
Sodium: 445mg
Potassium: 191mg
Carbohydrates: 102g
Fiber: 1g
Sugar: 70g
Protein: 9g
Vitamin A: 22.4%
Calcium: 9.6%
Iron: 5.1%
That crumb looks perfect! Wish I had a slice now!
Wow This cake looks so soft and delicious! Perfect for weekend treat!
If you don’t have a bundt pan, can you make this in a regular cake pan? Or loaf pan?
Hi Marcella, I think you could do a 9×13 pan (reduce baking time, though!), but it would be too much batter for a loaf pan.
Just stick me in a corner with a few slices of this and a mint julep and I will be happy forver! This cake looks perfect in every way.
This cake looks absolutely fabulous. SO yummy!!
Between the bourbon in the cake AND The glaze, this has gotta be one moist, wonderful cake. I love having my drinks, via cake :) This looks like an amazing cake! And blows the pants off any rum cake I’ve ever tried, no doubt. Pinned
I don’t know why this always confuses me…I sift the flour first, then measure, right?
Also, if I wanted to, but I’m not sure why I would want to…can the 1/3 cup of alcohol in the cake batter be replaced with anything? Thank you :)
Hi Sharon, Yes, you are correct! If the recipe would state “3.5 cups cake flour, sifted” then you would measure first, then sift. I would probably just omit the alcohol if you don’t want it, since there is already a good bit of milk in the recipe.
Do you have the weight of the flour? That gets rid of any questions of pre vs post sifting.
Hi Sam, I do not have the weight for the flour.
The weight of the flour is 350g. The cake flour should be equal to or slightly less than the sugar. That works out with the sugars being 485g total. Hope that helps.
You should always sift your dry ingredients together but measuring sifted cake flour has no point to it.
Chef Tom Beckman
Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts
The flour will essentially be sifted twice…sift, measure, sift with baking powder and soda?
Yes, that’s correct!
This is perfect for my Dad (and me, too)!! We are huge KY bourbon fans!! Thanks for the recipe! My Dad’s birthday is right around the corner and now I know what cake he is getting!!
this cake looks sooooo sooo good. reminds me of a family favorite!
This is JUST the kind of cake I was hoping would come my way. I have the bourbon and I’m not into the real sweet cakes right now. Buttermilk, bourbon, brown sugar, three great ingredients. This will be my Mothers Day Baking.
Wow – you are certainly giving us the tools for an awesome Kentucky Derby gathering. Between the popcorn yesterday, this yummy cake today and the Kentucky Derby cupcakes from last year, I will make our friends VERY happy. :)
that looks amazing! My mom made a rum cake this weekend and I just loved it. I can’t wait to try this one! :)
I love the simplicity of this cake! Bourbon and butter are such fabulous ingredients that they don’t need to sit on the sideline – I imagine they turn this cake into something quite incredible.
Rum cake totally makes me think of my grandma too! (She serves hers every Christmas with peppermint ice cream). I’m a bourbon fiend (shhhh don’t tell), so I know I’d devour this!
I feel like I can taste the butter and bourbon in this cake just by looking at it — it looks so moist and scrumptious!
The cake looks really moist. Love adding bourbon to most anything.
This looks really good. I really enjoy your blog, and your recipes have been a lot of fun to make. I’ve been weighing my ingredients to ensure consistency. Is there a simple way to convert this recipe?
Hi Arlene, I use this chart from King Arthur Flour to convert pretty much anything that I want to weigh: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipe/master-weight-chart.html
My mouth is watering… this is an acceptable breakfast food, right?
How do you think this would work with brown butter? Would you suggest any changes to the recipe to ensure that the crumb bakes up the way yours did?
xo
a
It is absolutely an acceptable breakfast food :) As for the browned butter, I think it would be great! I’m not sure that you’d need to make any changes.
Thanks, Michelle! I can’t wait to make this :) xox
Thanks for sharing some Derby themed recipes this week; this Louisville girl is loving it!
Absolutely gorgeous. Can’t wait to try this. And, I love your recipe format, too. Smart!