Cake Slice Bakers Bake From A New Book

I've really enjoyed being part of the Cake Slice Bakers baking group. Each month we choose from four recipes from our current book. This month we are beginning a new book...Maida Heatter's Cakes. It has plain cakes, fancy cakes, chocolate cakes, layer cakes, cheesecakes, fruitcakes and nut cakes, cakes with fruits or vegetables, yeast cakes and more.

Although the other three recipes sounded wonderful, I chose to bake The Irish Whiskey Cake, leaving out the caraway seeds. I baked the recipe in a small Bundt pan instead of a loaf pan. It makes small slices, so you can have more than one and still feel virtuous. It's the perfect size to share, so it's going on my weekend journey with me. I would have included the oh-so-Irish caraway seeds, but I was out of them. I also forgot to smear extra butter on the hot cake once it came from the oven and I didn't add extra whiskey via wrapping or cheesecloth in the center. Still, it is a lovely cake which Maida describes as having less fruit than the usual fruitcake. I froze mine for a few days, so it was very easy to slice.

This cake was a dream to bake. Although the list of ingredients is long, the making really is comprised of four steps: creaming the butter and sugar, then alternately adding the sifted together dry ingredients and the whiskey, followed by stirring in citrus, raisins, seeds and nuts, then folding in beaten egg whites. I beat the egg whites before starting the creaming since I only have on stand mixer bowl. I set them aside in a different bowl, rinsed out the stand mixer bowl and dried it, then got on with the recipe. The whites were still just fine for folding in by the time I got to them and this way the baking powder had less time to react before the pan of batter was in the oven, too.

Do give this cake a try. Sweetie says that it has a medium density, is not too sweet, and was nicely balance between fruity and nutty. I think that it would go well with a glass of wine or some coffee or tea because, although it isn't dry, it isn't terribly moist either...I guess it's just right.

Not sure I'll have time to type up the recipe, but check out the other bakers at the bottom of the post. The photos link to their posts and one of them may have typed it all up. I'm trying to get this post up at the same time that I'm loading the car to drive to the Sacramento area to visit Natasha and her hubby and do some painting at last. When I get back I'll try to type up the recipe for future reference and so that you, too, can make this delicious cake. I might have some more photos, too. You can also buy the book...it's a great one.

In the meantime, do check out the post of the other Cake Slice Bakers and see which recipe they chose to make.

An InLinkz Link-up