Cake #3 - Irish Whiskey Cake

This cake comes from Moosewood's Dessert Cookbook - I have almost all of the Moosewood cookbooks and I love them.  I especially appreciate that in the back they list which recipes are vegan, which is helpful for meal planning when cooking for vegan friends.

I had recently cleaned the pantry and realized we had an inordinate amount of dried fruit, which we were never going to use.  I picked this Irish Whiskey Cake recipe because it called for a lot of dried fruit.  It seems like it's probably a better winter cake than a summer one, but it was still delicious.

I didn’t use the almonds (I tend not to like nuts added to baked goods and ice creams as they lose their crunch), nor did I brush the cake with additional whiskey (but I think I would do that in the future), and I also didn’t dust the cake with powdered sugar.  My aversion to pastries with powdered sugar ranks up there with my dislike of glitter.  I know it seems un-American – or at least greatly lacking in a sense of fun – but I hate biting into something and finding myself covered in powdered sugar.

One more note – the recipe below is as it appears in the cookbook.  When I baked it all the dried fruit sank to the bottom.  Next time I’ll try dusting the fruit with flour before adding it to the batter.  Since then, I’ve read that a more acidic batter also helps keep fruit from sinking – it coagulates the eggs earlier in the baking process and holds things in place.  But it seems trying a dusting of flour would be easier than trying to reformulate the whole recipe!

Irish Whiskey Cake

2½ cups diced dried fruit (3 or 4 kinds including apricots, peaches, cherries, cranberries, raisins, prunes, or dates)

2/3 cup Irish whiskey, plus an optional 2 to 3 tablespoons

1½ cups butter, at room temperature

2¼ cups sugar

6 large eggs

2 teaspoons freshly grated orange peel

2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon peel

2 teaspoons almond extract

¼ teaspoon salt

3 cups unbleached white pastry flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup toasted chopped almonds

2 to 3 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

1.       Combine the diced fruit and 2/3 cup of whiskey in a saucepan.  Simmer on low heat for about 10 minutes, until the fruit has softened.  Set aside to cool.

2.       Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Butter and flour a 10-inch bundt pan.

3.       Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl until light.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating until light.  Add the orange peel, lemon peel, almond extract, and salt.  Sift together the flour and baking powder and add to the butter mixture in several additions, beating well after each.  Fold the dried fruit and the almonds into the batter by hand. 

4.       Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 1¼ to 1½ hours or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.  Allow the cake to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then invert it onto a serving plate and cool for an additional 10 minutes.  Remove the pan and cool completely.  For a more pronounced whiskey flavor, brush the warm cake with the optional 2 to 3 tablespoons of whiskey.  Lightly dust the cake with confectioners’ sugar before serving. 

From Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts by The Moosewood Collective