Bailey's Irish Cream Cake

Oh! My goodness. This is soooo good.
Sam and I celebrated our 12th anniversary yesterday, Sunday July 19. Carol and Elton joined us. We ate at Lamache's in Jefferson Texas. Delicious Italian restaurant in one of the hotels...One of the haunted hotels. Stories abound about ghostly visits in several of the rooms and kitchen noises going on in the kitchen...when it's closed. Upon investigation...nothing.

I read about Bailey's Irish Cream Cake. With a bit of searching on the internet trying to find a recipe that didn't call for a cake mix, I found this:


2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 cup Bailey's Irish Cream
1/2 cup butter, cut into pieces
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 1/3 cup sugar

Icing:
2 3/4 cup heavy cream, chilled
1/3 cup Bailey's Irish Cream, chilled
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease, line the bottoms of 2 round cake pans with wax paper or parchment, grease and flour pans. Combine dry ingredients, set aside. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine Bailey's and the butter; heat until butter melts and mixture almost boils. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla. Cover to keep warm. In a mixer bowl at high speed, beat eggs until pale yellow and tripled in volume (5 minutes or so). Reduce speed to medium; beat in sugar 2 tablespoons at a time, until combined. Reduce speed to low. In a thin steady stream, beat hot Bailey's mixture into egg mixture just until combined. Beat in flour mixture until just combined. Divide batter between pans. Bake 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pans on racks 10 minutes; remove layers from pans and continue to cool on racks.

Icing:
Combine all ingredients in mixer bowl. Beat at high speed until stiff peaks form (3-5 minutes). Refrigerate frosting until ready to use. Assemble cake. Garnish with chocolate pieces if desired.

Assembled ingredients. The clerk in the liquor store tried to get me to purchase a cheaper Irish cream. Sam has mentioned Bailey's before and since he likes it, that's what I bought. You know, the clerk never heard the phrase, "Don't cook with anything that you wouldn't drink." I took a sip of the BIC. No thank you. I intended to keep the secret ingredient secret, but Sam walked through. This is the first time we've had this in the house since we've been married. He had to have a snort.

The three different bowls ready to be assembled.

Drizzling the Bailey's and butter mixture into the whipped eggs and sugar mixture.

Flour mixture blended in. Then poured into the two pans...ready for the oven.

Cooling and waiting to be slathered with whipped cream.

Slathered and we're drooling.

This was a dense cake. It may be the way it is, but there's a possibility that the beating time may have been too long. I remember reading somewhere that once you've incorporated all the air into a mixture that it can take, you then start breaking bubbles. Another possibility is that my baking powder may be old...but it was okay last week when I made cornbread...

And, the whipping cream between the layers squished out when I sliced the cake. I might substitute a butter and powdered sugar icing thinned with Bailey's Irish Cream next time.

Well, next time I intend to try the chocolate version. ;o)