Night Cap Anyone??

Since I had some extra time tonight I thought I would post one more ‘catch-up’ recipe. This one is great for around the holidays but you can make it anytime, really. To fancy it up a bit, you could use green and red sugar crystals over the top or put some food coloring right into the glaze when you make it. The glaze starts to get crispy over the cake after it’s been sitting for a bit and as you may be coming to realize, I love things with a crunch! You probably won’t see very many soft cookie recipes here! Not to say I don’t like one every once in a while but crunchy is the way to my heart! Okay, back to the cake! This one is super easy because you use a store bought cake mix; I usually feel like I’m cheating if I do this but since the recipe is much more than just the cake mix and the glaze is homemade, I made an exception. As a side note, I do have other recipes that require cake mixes but I usually try to make from scratch. I don’t know that there is much of a difference, I just like the feeling of measuring out each ingredient and this is what allows for my tweaking of recipes. Most of the time when I switch things up, it’s the types of sugar or flour or extracts that I like changing. It’s difficult to do that when something is already all put together. Okay, back to the cake a second time! This is great with a cup of spiked coffee, hot tea or even just a glass of milk. The pudding in the recipe is what makes the cake so moist and the glaze keeps it locked in. Now I know there are some recipes with liquor or liqueurs and you can’t really taste them-NOT the case with this recipe. You can definitely taste the Bailey’s so if you’re not a fan- don’t try! I first made this for Danny’s office (big surprise, I know) and it was such a hit that I made it again for my dad’s birthday and everyone loved it. It’s not difficult to make and I highly recommend it for any type of get together- you can feed a lot of sweet teeth!

BAILEY'S IRISH CREAM CAKE

What you need for the cake:

1 cup chopped pecans (I didn’t use these; you may start to notice I skip nuts in a lot of recipes because Danny doesn’t care for them- I don’t think you miss much by leaving them out in this particular case though)

1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix (I prefer Duncan Hines cake mixes)

1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix

4 eggs

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup vegetable oil

3/4 cup Irish cream liqueur

What you need for the glaze:

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup Irish cream liqueur

To make the cake:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan. If using, sprinkle chopped nuts evenly over bottom of pan.

2. In a large bowl, combine your cake and pudding mixes. Beat in the eggs, 1/4 cup water, 1/2 cup oil and 3/4 cup Irish cream liqueur. Beat for 5 minutes at high speed (this is an important part, the batter gets really fluffy and thick as you beat and this incorporates the pudding- don’t skimp on the time!) 3. When you’re done beating, pour batter in your prepared pan.

3. Bake in the preheated oven for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan (this is when I make the glaze), then flip it out onto a serving dish. (I usually do a cutting board or large cookie sheet because the glaze makes a mess.) 

4. Poke the top and sides of the cake (I use a clean grill skewer because it goes all the way through the cake and allows for it to absorb more evenly). Then spoon your glaze over the top and brush onto sides of cake. Allow the cake to absorb the glaze and keep repeating until all glaze is used up.

To make the glaze:

Combine butter, 1/4 cup water and the white and brown sugar in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil and continue boiling for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and stir in 1/4 cup Irish cream.

And I even have a picture of the one I did ‘way back when’! Let me know what you think!

ENJOY!

Pin It