Carrot Cake with Bourbon-Cinnamon Buttercream...or any other sweet-tooth-satisfying concoction!
All photos are mine.
The Husband is a bourbon fan, and I am not. (Give me something fruity and sweet.) But ever since @walkerland made a post about substituting other ingredients for vanilla in recipes, with bourbon being a suggested substitute, I've been a bit intrigued about working it into recipes.
This afternoon I made Taste of Home's easy Carrot Cake recipe, substituting bourbon for the vanilla (it was just one teaspoon, but still, "the principle of the thing" applied), and let it cool.
I then experimented with creating a bourbon-spiked buttercream that I think turned out pretty good; you get a pleasing taste of the bourbon, without the bite.
INGREDIENTS (and commentary)
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 2 tablespoons bourbon (I raided the good stuff when the Husband wasn't looking)
- 2 tablespoons evaporated milk (because I'm tired of drying out carrot cake in the refrigerator)
- 1/4-1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, to taste
- 4-1/2 cups powdered sugar
- Pecans (optional)
DIRECTIONS
Beat butter until light and creamy. Combine the milk and bourbon, and add to the butter mixture alternately with the powdered sugar, starting and ending with sugar and mixing well after each addition. Throw in the cinnamon at some point :) Add extra sugar at the end, if necessary, to make the frosting a good spreadable consistency. If it's too thick, add a little extra liquid.
Spread on cake and top with pecans, if desired. EAT!!
What happened when I attempted to take a photo of a bite of cake on my fork...this little shark swooped in and attacked it!
ENJOY :)))
That looks like a great icing. Here in Canada we don't have bourbon but we could use scotch (the good kind) or sherry. I like the idea of pecans but in our family we have two people who won't eat food with nuts in it or on it. I am always glad to go out there someone is using nuts.
One of my kids positively loves nuts (we call them a little squirrel) and the other doesn't at all, so I left the nuts out of the cake and off the top just so people could sprinkle them on if they feel like it :)
Girl! We live in the bourbon trail state and in bourbon county! Love a good bourbon! Looks delicious!
Mmm, it's tasty for sure! I don't mind the flavor of bourbon, but I don't like the burn. The Husband on the other hand would think where you live is heaven...🥃😋
I do prefer a good wine over it though! Cheers! 🍷
Looks great! And a good compromise with the hubby.
I’m not so good at baking myself nor am I a sweet tooth (hubby is haha so we’re opposites) but I will eat stuff with spirits in it haha
Exactly! I do like the flavors! Might have to try another recipe this week :)
This looks delicious! Reading about this reminded me of my Grandma making fruit cake...lol...."one shot for the cake annnnddddd one shot for me". It's maybe a good thing you don't care for bourbon...lol. Great post.
Hahaha!! She sounds like a fun grandma :))) Yes, as it is, the Husband gets the bottle to himself unless I steal some for baked goods!
Thank you :)
Oh my, my brain is officially frazzled! I was reading through your ingredients and thought to myself, “Um, I think she forgot the carrots.” Once I got to the “spread on cake” part, I realized it was for the frosting. I bet it tastes delicious!
I had rum bread pudding at a resteraunt once, and I don’t know what they did, but the alcohol was not cooked out. I could have gotten drunk off that stuff!
Ha, that's not unheard of for me. I made chocolate zucchini cupcakes last summer, went to all the trouble of shredding zucchini and patiently wringing the water out...then forgot to put it in the batter. I stuck the cupcakes in the oven and turned around to see the bowl full of zucchini still sitting there.
Mmm bread pudding!! I haven't made one in awhile. I read somewhere that alcohol doesn't always all burn off out of baked goods. Drunk from bread pudding would be kind of funny :)))