Liqueur Cakes

Total Time: 1 hr 30 mins Preparation Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

• 8 eggs
• 2 2/3 cups sugar
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 vanilla beans or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup butter, melted, cooled to room temperature
• 3 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1 1/4 cups water
• 1 3/4 cups amaretto (rum and brandy while not really liqueurs, also work well in these cakes) or 1 3/4 cups frangelico (rum and brandy while not really liqueurs, also work well in these cakes) or 1 3/4 cups grand marnier (rum and brandy while not really liqueurs, also work well in these cakes)
• 1/3 cup almonds, toasted (for amaretto cake)
• 2 tablespoons orange zest, grated (for grand marnier cake)
• 1/3 cup hazelnuts, toasted and chopped (for frangelico cake)

Recipe

• 1 preheat oven to 350 degrees f. grease and flour 4 loaf pans.
• 2 split open vanilla bean and scrape seeds into cream.
• 3 drop pod into cream and heat until scalding. let cool.
• 4 whisk together the eggs, sugar and salt until well blended.
• 5 sift the flour and baking powder together.
• 6 whisk the sifted dry ingredients into the egg/sugar mixture just until blended.
• 7 remove (and discard) the vanilla bean pod from the cream, and whisk cream into the batter.
• 8 gently mix in the melted butter, pour batter into the prepared loaf pans and bake for 50-60 minutes or until golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean.
• 9 while cake is baking, prepare syrup by combining sugar, water and corn syrup in a heavy saucepan. stir mixture over medium-high heat until it comes to a simmer.
• 10 continue to heat (without further stirring or your finished product will have sugar crystals!) until mixture comes to a full boil.
• 11 cover (also important to avoid those nasty sugar crystals) and continue to boil until all sugar is dissolved and liquid is clear, about a minute.
• 12 remove from heat and let cool for about 5 minutes.
• 13 stir in liqueur.
• 14 after removing cakes from the oven, allow them to cool in pan for about 5 minutes.
• 15 run a knife around the edges of the pan and turn cakes out, then immediately return cakes to pans.
• 16 use a thin wooden skewer to poke numerous holes into the cake, about 1 inch apart. the holes should go all the way from the top to the bottom of the cake. pour 1/4 syrup mixture over each cake and, if desired, sprinkle with optional toppings.
• 17 let cool until the cakes have absorbed the syrup.
• 18 remove from pans.
• 19 note: if giving these cakes as gifts, you can use disposable aluminum foil loaf pans and give the cake in the pan.