Couple of months back, I was staring at my display cabinet at home and was left wondering.
How on earth did Hubby & myself end up with these bottles and bottles of lovelies at home? We are running out of space in the display cabinet to store them. We always seems to buy them faster than we can consume them. Sure, leaving them in the cabinets is pretty, but isn't it such a waste? What can we ensure we put them to better use?
Other than the obvious choice of drinking them all up (since hubby & myself are not exactly heavy drinkers), what else can I do to make them into good use? Baking, it shall be. With that in mind, I went on my search of a simple nice recipe to incorporate alcohol in my baked goods. And I found it!
Butter cakes. There is just something very enticing about these simple beauties. They are not as fanciful and elaborated like layered cakes, and neither are they as pretty and versatile like our cupcakes. But then again, when they are done right, butter cakes are our plain old simple solution at all times. It is also the cake to go along with a nice hot cup of coffee on a Sunday morning while reading your newspaper. Am I not right?
To this simple beauty, let us add in our Baileys Irish Cream! Personally, Baileys has always been one of my top 3 choice of drink when i am out with the girls. This is especially so when I am not exactly in a mood for strong drinks. There is something about the creamy & milky texture that reminds me of a iced chocolate drink and who doesn't fancy a iced chocolate drink at anytime of the day?
With that in mind, I was off to give the recipe a shot!
In 2 weeks, I baked this butter cake twice and feedback from family and friends have been relatively positive. My Dad and & Mum (who does not even drink much alcohol) love the cakes (and commented an improvement on my baking skills) and even my mother-in-law (who is definitely well-versed in the culinary department) gave me a thumb up! It makes me really happy to be able to make them happy with my limited culinary skills. They are my motivation. Haha!
If I were to change anything in this recipe, I would probably cut down on the amount of cocoa powder used and to increase on the amount of Baileys in the batter. That would give the butter cake a more distinct flavour to it, I believe.
Look at this simple slice of Baileys Butter Cake. I am so drawn to it because of its pretty marbly swirls.
For those of you who are interested to try out this recipe I am sharing, I am pretty sure that you would like to achieve these pretty swirls in your cake, isn't it? Just make sure you do not go overboard with your obsession of swirling in the batter. In fact, the technique I have used here is not exactly marble swirling. Instead, we make use of the technique in "Zebra Cakes" to achieve this result which I really like very much.
In Step (9) of the recipe when you are alternating between the vanilla & cocoa batter, you may want to tap/shake the load pan very very lightly from left to right. This is just to help the batter to spread out better towards the side of the loaf pan. This will be useful as the vanilla batter can be a little bit on the thick side. When in the loaf pan, do not mix the vanilla & cocoa batter together. I not even swirl it further. Fear not, even if the batter looks ugly like what I have shown below.
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| My First Try |
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My Second Try
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The thing about creating cakes with interior designs is that you have absolutely no idea whether your attempt is successful until you cut into it. It took me so much self-control to stop myself from cutting into the cake on the night of completing the cake. While waiting for it to cool overnight, I could only keep my fingers crossed and pray that it will turn out exactly how I want it to be.
Looking at the results, I am so glad that I have waited. It was much easier to get near and clean slices of the cake after it has been cooled overnight.
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My First Try
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| My Second Try |
To me, the best part of my love in baking is to be able to share the fruits of my labour with my family and friends and it is such an added bonus if they like what I am making of them. Sharing is caring!
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Recipe: Adapted & modified from
here (Connie Goh).
Ingredients
250g Salted Butter, softened
170g Castor Sugar
4 Eggs
220g Self Raising Flour, sifted
20g Cocoa Powder, sifted
4 tbsp Baileys Irish Cream (Caramel Flavour)
3 tbsp Milk
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Method
1. Preheat oven to 150C.
2. Grease loaf pan before lining with baking paper. Set aside for later use.
3. Add cocoa powder to Baileys and mix well. Set aside for later use.
4. In a mixer bowl, cream butter together with sugar until pale in colour.
5. Add in vanilla extract and milk to the mixture and mix well.
6.. Add in the eggs (one at a time), mixing well after each addition.
7. Fold in the sifted flour to the wet mixture, one third portion at a time and mix well until batter is smooth.
8. Divide cake batter into 2 portions. Stir in Baileys mixture in Step (3) into one portion of the cake batter.
9. Using a spoon or a spatula, spoon in the vanilla cake batter and Baileys cake batter into the loaf pan alternatively. Tap the loaf pan on the work surface lightly as you go along to ensure batter is evenly spread out and any air pockets within it are removed.
10. Bake the cake at 150C for 45 minutes and 160C for 20 - 25 minutes or until cake tester come out clean when inserted into centre of the cake.
11. Remove from the oven and allow the cake to cool in the loaf pan for 10 - 15 minutes, before transferring it to the wire rack to be cooled completely.
