Eggnog Cake

Last week was the week of potlucks. I tried to think of something different to bring to each one (fancy salad, muffins, cookies), and for the finale, we made an eggnog cake.




















One of the people who ate it said it was just like her mom's "hot milk cake," which apparently involves heating milk on the stove before mixing it into the batter. This cake works the same way, with eggnog and butter heated on the stove.


















This is one of the recipes we will probably make on Christmas. The dry-run went fairly well, but I think I'd rather take it out of the oven near the minimum baking time. We gave it a couple extra minutes and I thought it was a little dry. One of the things I liked about this recipe is that it only makes one 9" cake, instead of a layer cake that usually makes to 9" cake rounds. The big issue was the icing - we used some leftover butter cream that I had in the fridge. The recipe calls for frosting made with cream cheese and bourbon. The butter cream was way to sweet and the flavor almost totally overpowered the eggnog. So for Christmas we'll use the boozy icing, and I think it'll be great!

Eggnog Cake
from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup egg nog
1 TBSP butter
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 325F.
In a large bowl, beat together the eggs and sugar until very thick; the batter should fall from the beaters in a thick ribbon. Add the vanilla and stir to combine.
While beating the eggs and sugar, heat the eggnog and butter in a small saucepan just until simmering. Add the hot eggnog to the egg mixture in a slow, steady stream as you continue beating. This will keep you from cooking the eggs.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, stirring until they’re just combined.
Pour the batter into a lightly greased 9 inch cake round.* Bake for 50 minutes, or until the cake is a deep golden brown and starting to pull away from the sides of the pan. Remove the cake from the oven and cool it in the pan for 10-15 minutes. Run a knife around the sides of the pan.

Bourbon Cream Cheese Frosting
3 1/2 TBSP bourbon
12 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4cup butter, at room temperature
4-5 cups powdered sugar (will depend on how thick you like your frosting)

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and butter until soft.
Add the powdered sugar and beat to combine.
Add the bourbon and beat to combine.

*I greased and floured mine. Next time I will also add a ring of parchment around the bottom of the pan to help it come out more smoothly.