17 March 2011

The luck of the Irish

I am super excited about this cake I'm showing today. Bailey's Irish Cream Cake. 

You are interested, yes? I had first tried it a couple of years ago during a family gathering at Michael's parent's house and it was delicious. Oh, and the glaze. It is amazing and now that I know the recipe it's no wonder. There's butter involved.
I'd been wanting to eat this cake again (and again and again) and I finally asked for the recipe so I could bake it up for St. Patrick's Day. It's ridiculously simple. So much in fact, that I felt I needed to add a challenge.

Inspired by the Bake it in a Cake method I decided that I should put little shamrocks in the cake. Could I do this, was it worth the effort? Um, of course.

Bailey's Irish Cream Cake
1 pkg. (18 oz.) white cake mix
3.4 oz. pkg. instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup oil
3/4 cup Bailey's

Bailey's Irish Cream Glaze
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup Bailey's




First! Gather all needed supplies. I don't mind saying that I was skeptical about using a boxed cake mix. It felt like cheating but I have learned that when mixed with the right ingredients it can actually be amazing.  



  1. Oil your bundt pan.
  2. In a medium size bowl mix together dry ingredients. Set aside.
  3. In large bowl mix together the remaining ingredients until well blended.
  4. Add dry mixture to large bowl and beat on high for 5 minutes.

If you are just making the bundt and not the shamrocks then go ahead and pour mixture into bundt pan and bake at 325F for 60 minutes. 

Making shamrocks? You're going to need your oven at 350F to begin with. Then line an 8x8 pan with foil and coat with non-stick spray.
  1. After mixing take about 3/4 of batter and put into small bowl.
  2. Color batter green.
  3. Pour into 8x8 and bake 15-20 minutes or until done.
Once this cake is done remember to put your oven back to 325F.

This is what I got.



Green cake. I know it looks super appetizing but just wait, it gets better. Cut out your little shamrocks with a cookie cutter and place aside. They're pretty cute and I could have just eaten them as little mini-cakes.


 


Now, put a small layer of batter into the bundt pan. Line the shamrocks with the creases of the pan (upside down, remember, due to the nature of the pan) and press into batter.



Fill the pan with remaining batter.
Bake at 325F for 60 minutes.



Oops! The bottom looks a little funny. Guess I either didn't press the shamrocks in enough or I had put in too much batter for that first layer. Probably a little bit of both, but look! Cake looks wonderful when flipped right-side-up.



Now, the glaze. Super easy and super wonderful.

Bring the butter, water, and sugar to a boil in a medium sized sauce pan for 5 minutes; stirring constantly. The mixture will look frothy.
After 5 minutes remove from heat and immediately stir in the Bailey's.
Pour over cake.

That last step I would recommend doing as soon as everything is well mixed. I waited a few minutes to see if it would thicken up and boy, did it. So my glaze looks a little goopier than I'd like but this is how we learn.




Now the final revealing. Do I have shamrocks?




Success!
  

I'm really happy with this cake. It's dense but not crumbly and it really doesn't need to be super fancy to be satisfying. There are a couple of things I'll do next time, though. Those shamrocks are not centered and had they been I think it would have been more visually stunning. Also, there should be more. Always more shamrocks!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

xoxo
Stephanie

1 comment:

  1. it looks yummy! i can't wait to read more and get some recipes from you! this is casey, btw...my laptop is too persnickety to use a linked account.

    ReplyDelete