Honey Bourbon Cake

My Netflix library is loaded with foodie related shows.  From some amazing documentaries like, Chef’s Table to my binge-worthy obsession, The Great British Baking Show , I find myself fascinated and inspired at the same time.

If you’re like me and don’t feel like your baking skills are as strong as your cooking ability, you need to watch The Great British Baking Show.  The bakers on this reality show are absolutely authentic amateurs whose knowledge and skill with baking is a true inspiration to people like me.  They are challenged to bake things that I’ve never heard of and occasionally things they’ve not heard of either.

The downside to watching this “well-done” show?  I am now constantly craving carbohydrates and sugar. Which with a middle-age metabolism is a dangerous thing.  Nevertheless, I’m trying to limit my baking of sweets to about once a week.  Since we are empty-nesters I do my best to take the majority of the leftovers to friends and family.  Otherwise I will find myself wanting to have those fresh-baked goodies for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

During one episode of The Great British Baking Show the contestants made honey cakes.  I’d never heard of them before.  But when I came across the Ina Garten recipe for Honey Bourbon Cake, that was all the inspiration I needed to pull out the stand mixer and get to work.  I would like to think that the judges, Paul and Mary, would have tasted my cake and given me a “well-done” nod of approval.

I made a few modifications with the baking pan.  After a bit of a search, I could not locate my angel food cake pan.  I opted for my fluted bundt pan instead.  Figuring that it was roughly the same size and an Angel Food pan, had a hole in the center and might look pretty sprinkled with some powdered sugar at the end.  I also chose to put the sliced almonds on the top (which becomes the bottom) when you flip the bundt cake over.

Honey Bourbon Cake

This recipe makes a big, tender, moist and spice-filled cake.  The addition of cinnamon, allspice, cloves, ginger and orange zest gives it a warm, almost holiday-like flavor.  Although it calls for 1/4 cup of bourbon, I didn’t really taste it so much.  There are a lot of other flavors happening with freshly squeezed orange juice and black coffee.

The only other issue I had is that I ended up having to bake this big cake for an additional 10 minutes…taking it up to 55 minutes total.  I may have made a mistake of baking it on convection instead of regular bake.  When I checked it at 40 minutes, my wooden skewer was coated in raw batter.  I switched to regular 350 degree bake and gave it 15 more minutes which did the trick.

While it is lovely served just as is, Alan enjoyed it with some vanilla ice cream.  You can also gently warm a slice in the microwave and then spread it with some cream cheese and a drizzle of honey.  Actually that was what I had for my breakfast this morning!