Scottish Whisky Cake

Cooking is my favorite hobby. I live to eat. I, however, do not live to bake. You can state that about as emphatically as you'd like. If I never baked again I'd probably be just fine. Desserts are just ok. Leftover desserts are either given away or thrown away. Once we've had a serving we're done. So, you can imagine my dismay when I got a baking blog for my Secret Recipe Club post this month. Gnashing of teeth, tearing of hair. Then, I started reading Gloria's blog. OMG does she have some fantastic stuff there. And, thankfully for this non-baker, most of her recipes are very approachable. Now, you do need to hit the internet to translate them into our wacko American measurements. But, the ingredient lists aren't overwhelming and the directions are well written. I knew I'd be ok. What to try? There was a recipe for pear cake with black sesame seeds. Connie LOVES pears. But, I wasn't sure I'd have the time to get to a specialty store to get the black sesame seeds. On to the next recipe. All of them better than the one before. I'd printed four or five. Then, I found IT. Scottish Whisky Cake. Yup. We had some lamb stew meat that Connie'd been talking about turning into lamb stew. We could have a nice little ScotchIrish dinner. After all, we're McConnell, Connolly, Martin, Clark and O'Keefe. Plus, you've got to add the English side - Hart and Marvel.

If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you know the drill. Once a month I post a recipe from another blogger. It's like the old secret pal thing. They don't know you've got their blog until the day we ALL reveal our recipes. Over the last year I've met some wonderful bloggers doing this. And, I love actually being able to sit down and read another blog. There are two that I read with regularity (That Skinny Chick Can Bake and The Mom Chef.) Otherwise, I try and catch friend's blogs as I can. Which isn't as often as I'd like because I work so much. This month I got Canela Kitchen. Lucky me. Gloria is from Santiago, Chile.  She's been blogging since 2007.  You'll love her recipes and her photos.  And, you can browse through the other folks sharing this reveal date below.  But, to get to the folks from other weeks, head to Secret Recipe Club.

By now, you're probably wondering how our cake turned out... Dinner was lamb stew and Liz's hearts of palm, beet and blue cheese salad. We were both stuffed. But, I'd actually made the cake and it smelled incredible and we really had to try it for this blog. So, I cut a couple of slices. And, I snuck a bite of the corner that'd fallen off. Woo HOOO! Connie almost didn't get any cake. But, being a nice wife, I shared. We sat on the screened porch and ahhh'd and ohhh'd. And, the next morning believe it or not I slept later than Connie and when I got up there was an empty plate on the dining room table, a VERY happy hubby and a missing piece of cake. I followed suit. YUMMM! This was so easy to put together. And, the flavors all just danced together. Perfection on a plate. Not that I'll turn into a baker. But, I will make this again. And, I can pretty much guarantee it'll become a family favorite.



I'm printing the recipe with Gloria's measurements:

Ingredients:

Cake:

200 grs self-rising flour
170 grs butter
180 grs brown sugar
3 beaten eggs
3 T whisky (we used Scotch whisky)
rind of a small orange, grated

Glaze:
180 grs powdered sugar
70 grs butter
2 T honey
1 T orange juice (I used more to turn this into a glaze instead of icing)
Sliced almonds, toasted

Directions:

Cream the butter and brown sugar until they're light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs one at a time.  Then, add the orange rind and half of the flour.  Once that's thoroughly mixed, add in the whisky.  Then, add in the balance of the flour.  Bake at 350 in a loaf pan.  The instructions said 20-25 minutes but mine took 35 to get done.  While the cake is baking, cream together the butter, honey and orange juice.  Add the powdered sugar slowly.  I added about 2-3 more tablespoons of orange juice to make this a glaze.  When the cake came out of the oven, I poured the glaze over it and allowed it to soak in while we were eating dinner. Then, just before serving, top with the toasted sliced almonds.