Flo Braker | Baking for All Occasions | Chronicle Books, 2008 |Serves 20
This inviting holiday cake is the next best thing to eggnog in a cup. The dense yet tender cake showcases the incomparable flavor of eggnog, while rum, nutmeg, and currants add a complementary dimension. Bake it in your favorite patterned Bundt pan, and brush the warm cake with the rum glaze. As the cake cools, the crystallized topping clings attractively to the crevices, creating a special effect.—Flo Braker
convert Ingredients
Scant 1/2 cup
(2 1/4 ounces) dried currants
2 tablespoons dark rum or water
3 cups (13 3/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, preferably freshly grated
8 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups (14 ounces) granulated sugar
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup (8 fluid ounces) store-bought refrigerated (rather than canned) eggnog
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
For the crystal rum glaze
3/4 cup (5 1/4 ounces) granulated sugar
2 tablespoons dark rum
2 tablespoons water
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Directions
1. In a small bowl, combine the currants and rum and set aside to macerate for 15 minutes. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) or 325°F (160°C) if the pan has a dark finish). Butter a 10-by-3-inch Bundt pan, lightly coat it with nonstick spray, then flour it, tapping out the excess flour. Or, butter and flour a 10-by-4 1/4-inch tube pan with or without a removable bottom. If the pan has an intricate design or detail, I take extra precaution, spreading it first with solid vegetable shortening, followed by a coating of nonstick spray, and then a dusting of flour to ensure the finished cake releases in one piece. Have all of the ingredients at room temperature.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg onto a sheet of waxed paper; set aside. Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-low speed until creamy and smooth, 30 to 45 seconds. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the sugar in a steady stream and continue to beat on medium speed until light in color and fluffy, about 5 minutes, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
3. With the mixer still on medium speed, add the eggs, 1 to 2 tablespoons at a time, beating after each addition until incorporated and stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl. On the lowest speed, add the flour mixture in four additions alternately with the eggnog in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and mixing after each addition until incorporated. Stop the mixer as needed to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the vanilla during the final moments of mixing.
4. Detach the paddle and bowl from the mixer, and tap the paddle against the side of the bowl to free the excess batter. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the currants and any remaining rum. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly with the spatula.
5. Bake the cake just until the top springs back when lightly touched in the center and the sides are beginning to come away from the pan, 55 to 65 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool in the pan for about 10 minutes while you prepare the glaze.
Make the crystal rum glaze
1. In a small bowl, combine the sugar, rum, and water and stir with a rubber spatula just until blended.
2. Without delay, tilt and rotate the cake pan while gently tapping it on a counter to release the cake sides. Invert a wire rack on top of the cake, invert the cake onto it, and carefully lift off the pan. Slide a sheet of waxed paper under the rack to catch any drips from the glaze. Using a pastry brush, coat the top and sides of the warm cake with all of the glaze. Let the cake cool completely before serving.
3. To serve, slide the base of a tart pan, a small rimless baking sheet, or a large offset spatula under the cake and carefully transfer it to a serving platter. Cut the cake into thin slices with a sharp or serrated knife.
Recipe © 2008 Flo Braker. Recipe © 2008 Scott Peterson. All rights reserved.
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I’d love to make this for when my son comes up this Christmas as he loves eggnog. I prefer golden raisins to currants. Would that be an appropriate substitution?
Hi Lorrie,
I think that golden raisins would be a fine substitution for the currants in this recipe. I would use the same measurement (1/2 cup) and macerate as Flo instructs. Let us know how you like the substitution!
Would it be okay to delete the currants from recipe? How would that effect the taste?
Hi Mareesa,
Leaving currants and/or raisins out of the recipe is acceptable and would certainly work but you’ll be losing a dimension of texture and flavor. You might consider substituting chopped walnuts. In the end the important thing is that it suits your taste so take creative license and enjoy!
Delicious, delicious, delicious. I made this for Christmas 2008, and it’s good enough to become a tradition. The cake was moist and delicious, with a very nice, very slight crunch from the glaze. I used homemade non-alcoholic eggnog in place of store-bought: 1 egg, approx. 1/4 cup heavy cream, just under 3/4 cup milk (i.e., enough to bring the measure up to 1 cup), and a generous amount of fresh-grated nutmeg. I used golden raisins in place of the currants and soaked them in dark rum as directed. Part of the cake stuck to the pan even though I had buttered and floured it, but I rearranged the broken piece as best I could and once the glaze set it wasn’t very noticeable. The cake tasted just as good the next day, too.
Bundt cake pans can be temperamental. When I think that I’ve prepped one with just the right amount of butter, I add a skosh more. Good thing you have some architectural skills. I’m glad you enjoyed the cake.
This is really a delicious cake! Not too sweet and a lovely texture. I ran out of regular sugar so used Sugar in the Raw for the topping. The crystal sugar looked beatiful on top of the cake. This will definitely be a holiday staple.
Hi Jackie,
So glad that you enjoyed the cake. I imagine that the Sugar in the Raw would be a beautiful topping. Isn’t it nice to have a trusty “go to ” recipe for your holiday treats?
Best wishes
I made this cake for my office Christmas party. I found that 55 minutes wasn’t near enough time for the cake to finish cooking. When I took it out at 55 minutes, there was lots of wet batter still on my tester knife that I stuck into the cake. I added 15 minutes to the cooking time and that pretty much finished it up. (It was still a bit moist in the center but it was edible.)
Another thing that happened was that it fell when I took it out of the oven. It had puffed up pretty high in my angel food tube pan. But when I took it out, the center part near the ring fell in a lot. Did that happen to anyone else? Again, the flavor was pretty good, but it was much more dense and heavy than I had anticipated. I wish it had been a bit fluffier. Will adding an additional egg help with that problem?
LaShanta, thanks for writing. If you look at the recipe, Flo states, “55 to 65 minutes” is required for proper baking. You baked yours for 70 minutes. There can be a few reasons why the cake may have needed the little extra to bake.
I think the biggest culprit could be your oven. It sounds like it’s running cool or has cool spots. I’d buy two or three oven thermometers and place them around the oven. Crank it to the heat you need and see if the three thermometers register correctly. If they are pretty much all off, the oven has to be calibrated, and a local repairperson can do that. If only one of the thermometers is off, you have a cold spot, and you’ll need to rotate your cake several times while baking.
Opening the oven door is a disaster for a cake. You should open the oven door for the first time at the lower end of a time suggestion. So in this case, open the oven for the first time at around 55 minutes—that’s when you should turn the cake, if you have a cold spot.
Regarding the cake falling, it could be due to several things such as: 1. low oven temperature, 2.) under baking, or 3.) excessive jarring of the cake. My guess is it’s a combo of the first two.
As far as adding an extra egg, that would throw off the critical balance of ingredients. Flo Braker is one of the most respected bakers and cookbook writers in America because she’s rigorous in her testing of recipes—so I’d trust the recipe. I think if you follow some of suggestions above, you have one heck of a cake. Happy baking!