Irish Whiskey Cake

Irish Whiskey Cake is a traditional holiday cake in Ireland and it’s quite popular here in the United States also. 

This recipe is a part of a holiday recipe roundup collaboration hosted by me, Natasha of @asiliglamcooks. For this week we are focusing on essential holiday recipes. 

I’m Chef Mireille of Global Kitchen Travels and so happy to be providing some delicious recipes for Chef Natasha of Asili Glam Cooks.

I’m a NYC based food blogger and photographer. Having worked in a lot of NYC kitchens and coming from one of the most diverse families on the planet, you will find both traditional and inspired modern interpretations of recipes from just about every country in the world. My website is a place where food, travel and education meet in one delicious place!

You will find many versions of Irish Whiskey Cake recipes, but many of them use processed ingredients in them like using a cake box mix or pudding mix. I always prefer to cook as naturally as possible, so I went to my network.

There are a lot of Irish descended people in the United States and especially here in New York City. I have a few Irish elementary school friends that I’m facebook friends with, so I reached out to them and was able to get a family recipe from the old country.

Everybody’s Irish Whiskey Cake, even in Ireland, is going to be a little bit different. This is simply the version I got from my friend and I hope you enjoy her family recipe as much as I did.

However, I wanted to add a modern twist to it.

I am not into frosting, but I do like a luscious glaze!

I also baked it in a pretty cake pan so it would have a nice design.

This results in a cake not simply with the whiskey as an after taste, but one that hits you in the face with the whiskey.

Yield: 8 servings

Irish Whiskey Cake

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Irish Whiskey Cake is a traditional holiday cake in Ireland and it’s quite popular here in the United States also. 

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients

Cake Ingredients:

• 1 cup golden raisins
• 1 ½ cups water
• 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• ¾ teaspoon cloves
• ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup softened butter
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ cup Irish Whiskey

Glaze Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
• ¼ cup whiskey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Finely chopped walnuts, garnish

Instructions

1. Mix the raisins and water together in a saucepan and simmer on medium heat for about 15 minutes, until the liquid has started to thicken and the raisins are very soft and plump. You will still have about ¼ cup liquid in the pot.
2. Let it stand while you start making the cake and in a few minutes, the raisins will have absorbed any remaining liquid.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
4. In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, clove, allspice and salt.
5. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine butter and sugar.
6. Mix until light and creamy.
7. Add egg and vanilla extract. Mix until thoroughly combined.
8. Add half of the flour and mix until thoroughly combined.
9. Add the remaining flour and the whisky. Mix until well combined.
10. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the walnuts and the raisins.
11. Spray a cake pan with non stick spray.
12. Transfer the cake batter to a cake pan.
13. Bake for about 45 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.
14. While the cake is baking, make the Whiskey Glaze.
15. In a bowl, sift the powdered sugar.
16. Add vanilla extract and whiskey.
17. Mix until thoroughly combined.
18. Place in a squeeze bottle and chill in the refrigerator until ready to use, so it will thicken up a bit.
19. Once the cake has cooled, remove from the cake pan and serve, drizzled with lots of Whiskey Glaze.

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