bourbon – Sweet Tooth Experiments

Date Bourbon and Chocolate Cakes

Posted on July 21, 2018 Posted in Cakes .

Date Bourbon and Chocolate Cakes

Believe it or not dates and bourbon actually have a similar flavour profile. However, they do have a big difference that is quite notable.

One ingredient is sweet as well as holding an earthy profile, while the other is strong in earthy sour smokiness. Put them together and the sweetness balances out the sourness and you are left with an interesting earthy flavour.

Add a hint of satisfying rich chocolate and you have chocolate cake with a satisfying unique tasty flavour twist.

Ingredients:

Cake:

350g dried dates
375ml water
35ml Bourbon
60g butter
160g brown sugar
3 eggs
180g flour
1 tsn baking powder
½ tsn bi carbonate of soda
30g cocoa powder

Icing:

100g date sauce powder (or replace with 80g icing sugar if you cannot find this)
130g icing sugar
160g butter
10ml bourbon

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 160c degrees and line a 12 capacity cupcake tin with cupcake patties. Spray with oil spray.
Place the dates and water into a saucepan on a low heat. Stir until the dates are plump and have soaked up all the water.
Remove the dates from the pan, add the bouron and place into a food processor, blitz until well combine.
Set the date mix aside to cool.
Using electric beaters beat the cake butter and sugar until light and creamy.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating in each addition until well combined.
Sift into the egg mix the flour, powder, soda, and cocoa powder, stir until combine.
Add the date mix to the egg mix and stir until just combine.
Spoon the mix evenly into each patty case.
Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
Meanwhile make the icing by placing all the icing ingredients into a bowl and using electric beats whisk until light and fluffy.
Once the cakes are cooked place on a cooling tray.
Remove the cakes from the patty cases (optional) and using a piping bag with a star nozzle pipe little circles of icing onto each cake.

Step 3

Step 7

Step 8

Step 9

Step 12

Like this recipe? Subscribe via RSS or email to get my new entries and more scrumptious recipes with reviews.

Sticky Chocolate and Bourbon Scrolls

Posted on October 1, 2017 Posted in Bread .

Sticky Chocolate and Bourbon Scrolls

This recipe was originally planned to be chocolate and coffee flavored scrolls, in which the actual dough of the scroll was fluffy and lush but the coffee glaze was not really a standout and to be honest a little boring. Maybe it was the fact chocolate and coffee is such a common flavor combo or maybe there was just no interesting wow factor in the treats.

As I had an awesome cloud-like dough recipe I decided I had to do something with this so I went on an experimental journey with a range of different flavor combos from ingredients that I had in my pantry.

After a few combo assortments, I landed on one I was super happy with and couldn’t stop eating!

I have baked with Chocolate and Bourbon previously (see my Bourbon Chocolate Cake with Peanut Bourbon Icing), thus I knew these flavors work together, however this time I wanted to add an almost caramel flavor to the mix therefore used brown sugar and honey for the glaze that would traditionally be make from white sugar only.

The outcome of the glaze was to die for. It is easily the standout of the scrolls I made up in my experimenting …It’s made me want to make a bourbon, caramel and honey cake now…maybe that can be my next experiment….

Ingredients:

Dough:

200ml warm water
60g butter, melted
60g sugar
I sachet yeast (2 tsn)
2 eggs
20g milk powder
¼ tsn salt
470g flour, plus extra for kneading

Filling:

100g dark chocolate
45ml cream

Glaze:

120ml honey
120g butter
90g brown sugar
90ml Bourbon

Extra:

20ml milk

Method:

To make the dough place the water, melted butter, sugar and the yeast in a bowl and stir to combine.
Leave the yeast mix to sit for 5 minutes, or until foamy.
Add the eggs to the yeast mix and whisk with a hand whisk until combine.
In a bowl place the milk powder, salt and flour, stir.
Using the hand whisk beat 300g of the dry flour mix into the water until combine.
With a spatula stir and fold the remaining flour mix until a dough is formed.
Flour a bench surface and knead the dough for 10 minutes, adding extra flour if required to make the dough smooth and elastic.
Lightly oil a bowl, add the dough, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place the bowl in a warm place until doubled in size (at least 1 hour).
While the dough proves pre-heat the oven to 175c degrees and line a 20cm x 35cm cake tin with baking paper.
Now make the filling by placing the cream in a bowl and heat in the microwave until the cream just starts to boil.
Add the chocolate to the cream and stir until smooth and silky.
Following, make the glaze by placing all the ingredients into a saucepan on a high heat, stirring until the mix is bubbling, take off the heat.
Pour the glaze in to the cake tin lined base, ensuring the base is evenly covered with the mix.
Flour a bench surface, place the dough in the center and top with a little sprinkle of extra flour.
Use a rolling pin roll the dough into a 15cm x 40cm rectangle shape.
Spread the filling onto the dough covering it evenly.
With a longest side facing you roll the long side of the dough tightly into a swiss roll (jelly-roll style logs), seam side at the bottom of the roll.
Cut the roll into 3cm sized spiral slices and arrange the spiral slices cut side up into the cake tin on top of the glaze.
Push the spirals into the base of the tin slightly with fingertips and brush the tops with the 20ml milk.
Top the tin with plastic wrap and leave to rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
Place the tin in the middle of the oven and bake for 25 minutes or until the tops are golden in colour.
Invert onto a plate and top with any remaining syrup left in the tin.
Allow scrolls to sit until slightly cooled then using fingers pull the scrolls apart from each other.
Serve with a cup of tea (if you wish) and enjoy.

Step 7

Step 7

Step 8

Step 8

Step 11

Step 12

Step 12

Step 13

Step 16

Step 17

Step 18

Step 21

Step 22

Step 23

Step 24

Like this recipe? Subscribe via RSS or email to get my new entries and more scrumptious recipes with reviews

Spiced Sweet Potato Bourbon and Caramel Cake

Posted on August 12, 2017 Posted in Cakes .

Spiced Sweet Potato Bourbon and Caramel Cake

Spiced Sweet Potato Bourbon and Caramel Cake recipe

In recent experimenting I made chocolate truffle by purely blitzing sweet potato, spices, a few gingernut biscuits and white chocolate. While the truffles were nice they were a little bland. However, from this recipe I thought the puree and white chocolate actually had legs to make a healthier alternative to buttercream icing (thanks to the smooth texture, consistency and taste).

As mentioned the truffles alone were a little bland so after a bit of flavor combo experimenting I decided that caramel, bourbon, honey and pecans would be the perfect mix of flavors to add.

As the sweet potato is not the strongest of flavors I opted to include this flavor in both the icing and the cake batter.

Caramel would be featured in the filling of the cake layers as well as only brown sugar being utilised in the cake.

Bourbon would feature most strongly in the cake as well as a syrup layer to really pack the punch and ensure the cake is extra moist.

The pecans would be diced up for so extra textural crunch and lastly the honey would be used in the syrup and the caramel.

This cake is soo super moreish, with a gingerbread undertone all the flavors work soundly.

Ingredients:

Sweet potato puree:

640g sweet potato

Sweet Potato Icing:

85g white chocolate, chopped
200g sweet potato puree

Cake:

80g pecans
180g butter, softened
275g brown sugar
1 + ½ tsn vanilla essence
4 eggs
245g sweet potato puree
90ml bourbon
310g self-rising flour
½ tsn salt
1 + 1/3 tsn ground cinnamon
1/3 tsn ground ginger
1/3 ground nutmeg
¼ tsn ground cloves

Caramel:

60g white sugar
10ml water
10g butter
135ml cream
15g brown sugar
1/8 tsn salt
20ml honey

Syrup:

15g butter
35g white sugar
10ml water
½ tsn vanilla essence
15g honey
25ml bourbon

Method:

To make the puree peel the sweet potato and chop up into pieces.
Place the potato pieces into a bowl of water and heat in the microwave on high for 10 minutes or until a knife glides into a piece of potato effortlessly.
Drain the potato pieces and place into a food processor blitzing until silky smooth in texture, once done move mix into a bowl for later use.
To make the potato icing place 200g of the puree back into the food processor with the white chocolate. Blitz until well combine and silky smooth (the white chocolate will melt with the heat of the puree and combine with the potato).
Place the potato icing mix into a bowl and once cooled into the fridge to set.
Preheat the oven to 170c degrees and line 2x 25cm cake tins with baking paper.
Chop the pecans into small pieces and scatter into the bottom of both tins.
Place the butter into a mix-master (kitchen aid) and beat on high for 5 minutes, scraping down the butter from the sides each minute.
Add the sugar and vanilla and beat for another 3 minutes, scraping down the sides each minute.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating in between each addition until the mix is light and fluffy.
Add the 245g of puree and bourbon to the butter mix and beat on medium until well combined.
Sieve the flour, salt and spices into the butter mix and on a low speed beat until the dry mix is just combine to a smooth consistency.
Spoon the mix over the top of the pecans evenly with 1/3 of the mix into one tin and the remaining 2/3 in the second tin. Use the back of a spoon to flatten the mix to an even top, place the cakes in the oven for 40 minutes to cook.
Meanwhile make the caramel by placing the white sugar and water into a saucepan on the stove on high heat. Stir until the sugar has dissolved.
Leave the mix to bubble without stirring until it reaches golden brown in colour.
Take the saucepan off the heat and add 35ml of the cream, brown sugar, salt and honey stirring until well combine and silky smooth (be careful of the splatter). Pour the caramel into a ceramic bowl and leave aside to cool completely.
After the 40 minutes of the cakes cooking check the smaller cake by placing a skewer in the center. If if it comes out clean its done, if not leave until it does.
Check the second cake after 60 minutes by placing a skewer in the centre if it comes out clean its done, if not leave until it does.
Leave both cooked cakes in their tins for 5 minutes then invert onto a cooling rack.
Meanwhile make the syrup by placing the butter, sugar, water, vanilla and honey into a saucepan and heat on high for 5 minutes until thick bubbles occur and the syrup reduces.
Take the saucepan off the heat and add the bourbon stirring until well combined.
Add the cooled caramel mix to the remaining 100ml of cream and beat with electric beaters until well combine and peaks form.
To assemble the cake, cut the tops of both cakes to make them level and cut the larger cake in half horizontally.
Using a pastrybrush brush the cut sides of the 3 cake layers with the bourbon syrup mix until well covered.
Place 1 cake layer onto a plate syrup side up. Top with half the caramel cream mix.
Add the 2^nd cake layer syrup side up, top with remaining caramel cream mix.
Add the last cake later syrup side down and top with the sweet potato icing mix.
Place the cake in the fridge for 1 hour to set then cut and enjoy!

NOTE: To stop the caramel cream overflowing the cakes edges I piped some buttercream around the 2 cakes edges that the caramel cream would be spread on. I purely did this as I did not want the overflowing look.

Step 2

Step 3

Step 5

Step 10

Step 11

Step 12

Step 15

Step 16

Spiced Sweet Potato Bourbon and Caramel Cake recipe

Step 19

Spiced Sweet Potato Bourbon and Caramel Cake recipe

Step 21

Step 24

Step 25

Step 26

Like this recipe? Subscribe via RSS or email to get my new entries and more scrumptious recipes with reviews

Spiced Bourbon Marshmallow Slice

Posted on September 28, 2015 Posted in Slice .

Spiced Bourbon Marshmallow Slice

So I know that bourbon and chocolate go together very well (hello my Bourbon Chocolate Cake with Peanut Bourbon Icing recipe), however I wanted to use up some bourbon by making something different. Chocolate goes with most things as flavour parings tend to enhance and put a spin on the cocoa/cacoa taste. What I wanted to do was make a bourbon recipe that enhanced the bourbon flavour. On top of this as we know I do have a sweet tooth and bourbon is not sweet so I had to somehow also make it super appealing and absolutely tasty for by palate.

My solution to this was to play around with a variation of spices, mixing and matching until I found a set that went extremely well together, had similar flavour properties and also brought out the sweetness in the bourbon.

Sound impossible? See the below recipe and become a lover of bourbon!

Ingredients:

½ cup self raising flour
½ cup plain flour
¾ cup brown sugar
¼ tsn nutmeg
1/8 tsn ground ginger
1 + ½ ground cinnamon
1 + ½ mixed spice
100g butter
1 egg
1 tsn vanilla essence

Marshmallow:

1 tbsn gelatine powder
140g sugar
180ml cup water
4 tsn bourbon

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180c degrees and line a 20cm x 30cm cake tin with baking paper.
Place the flours, sugar and spices into a bowl and mix.
Melt the butter in a bowl and add the vanilla essence.
Stir the egg into the flour mix, add the butter mix and stir until well combine.
Place the mix into the cake tin and flatten with fingers.
Bake in the oven for 20 minutes then set aside to cool.
Make the marshmallow mix by placing the gelatine into half the water and stir to combine the mix.
Place the remaining water, sugar and bourbon into a bowl and whisk with electric beaters for 4 minutes.
Place the gelatine mix in the microwave until warm and syrupy in texture.
Slowly pour the gelatine in a consistent stream while the beaters are on high.
Continue beating for a further 8 minutes or until the mix is light and fluffy.
Pour the mix over the cooled slice base and place in the fridge for 2 hours to set completely.
Cut and enjoy.

Step 4

Step 5

Step 11

Step 12

Like this recipe? Subscribe via RSS or email to get my new entries and more scrumptious recipes with reviews.

Spiked Spiced Chocolate Tofu ‘Cheesecake’

Posted on July 7, 2015 Posted in Cakes .

Spiked Spiced Chocolate Tofu ‘Cheesecake’

You may recall in the past I have made the most amazing chocolate mousse tart with tofu and a cheesecake with yoghurt and milk instead of actual cheese.

On this same vein of thought I decided to experiment with a tofu ‘cheesecake’.

I am always looking for ways to incorporate unusual ingredients into my recipes as well as create healthier alternatives to the normal sweet treat version.

Once I worked up a base recipe I then came up with an interesting (but scrumptious) flavour pairing.

The end result = silky smooth filling of a low fat and high protein sweet treat.

Ingredients:

Base:

280g Nice biscuits
130g butter

Filling:

80ml milk
1 tsn coffee granules
240g sugar
240g firm tofu
40g butter
40ml orange juice
½ tsn orange zest
2 tsn vanilla essence
25ml bourbon
50g cocoa powder
½ tsn ground ginger
½ tsn ground cinnamon
1 tsn all spice

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 160c degrees and line a 25cm spring form cake tin with baking paper.
Place the biscuits in a food processor and blitz until they resemble fine breadcrumbs.
Melt the 130g of butter and mix through the biscuit crumbs.
Once well combine pour the mix into the cake tin and using fingers press the mix into the base and sides of the cake tin. Place tin in the fridge to firm.
To make the filling heat the milk up in the microwave until boiling.
Add the coffee granules and sugar to the milk and stir until well combine and the sugar has melted.
Place the milk mix into a food processor with all the remaining ingredients and blitz until well combine and smooth.
Pour the mix into the cake tin and bake in the oven for 1h 15mins, or until the top is set completely.
Leave in the tin to cool then allow to firm in the fridge for 3 hours.
Release from the tin, decorate with cocoa powder and enjoy.

Step

Step

Step

Step

Step

Like this recipe? Subscribe via RSS or email to get my new entries and more scrumptious recipes with reviews.

Bourbon Chocolate Cake with Peanut Bourbon Icing

Posted on October 6, 2014 Posted in Cakes .

Bourbon Chocolate Cake with Peanut Bourbon Icing

Every now and then I dabble with varying types of alcoholic beverages in my baking. Recently with rum (though technically it was really rum essence not actually rum..shhh), Frangelico, Red wine, Baileys, and the list continues…

So many spirits have such amazing distinctive flavors that are generally forgotten until we buy a random happy hour half price cocktail!

I had recently had a spirit that was an old favorite when I was younger, this being the old Jim Beam Bourbon. Though its flavor is by no means sweet, it does hold an interesting smokiness that I was captivated to put up against sweet tasting dark chocolate.

Therefore, hello my Bourbon Chocolate Cake with Peanut Bourbon Icing (peanut butter added to the icing for an even more unusual but wonderful twist that really works)!

Ingredients:

Cake:

2 tbsn bourbon
140g butter
60g cocoa powder
2 eggs
80g buttermilk
100g almond meal
100g plain flour
1 tsn baking powder
1/4 tsn bicarbonate of soda
200g brown sugar
75g caster sugar

Icing:

60g butter
1 tbsn bourbon
½ tsn vanilla essence
50g peanut butter
1 cup icing sugar
2 tsn milk

Method:

Preheat the oven to 160c and line a 23cm-baking tray with baking paper.
Place the butter and bourbon in a bowl and heat in the microwave until the butter is melted. Whisk to combine.
Now whisk in the cocoa until the mix is silky smooth.
Place the eggs and buttermilk in a separate bowl and whisk until combine.
Add the almond meal, flour, baking powder, bicarb and sugars in a 3rd bowl and whisk to combine.
Add the bourbon mix and the egg mix to the flour mix then whisk until combine.
Pour the mix into the cake tin and bake for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer in the center comes out clean.
Place the cake on a cooling rack.
To make the icing combine all ingredients together and beat with electric mix for 7 minutes until light and fluffy.
On a cooled cake spread the icing all over, serve.

Ingredients

Step 3

Step 6

Step 7

Step 8

Step 10

Like this recipe? Subscribe via RSS or email to get my new entries and more scrumptious recipes with reviews.

Sweet Tooth Experiments

Tag Archives: bourbon

Date Bourbon and Chocolate Cakes

Sticky Chocolate and Bourbon Scrolls

Spiced Sweet Potato Bourbon and Caramel Cake

Spiced Bourbon Marshmallow Slice

Spiked Spiced Chocolate Tofu ‘Cheesecake’

Bourbon Chocolate Cake with Peanut Bourbon Icing

Pages

Archives

Categories

WordPress

Subscribe