The Cake Dish: bourbon

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Peach Cobbler with Bourbon Whipped Cream

This is what came in my Produce Box this week...

Fresh picked NC peaches -- and we actually had two of these containers! I was beyond thrilled with these and really in the mood for a great peach cobbler. And I wanted to top it with the Bourbon Whipped Cream from my Bourbon Spice Cupcakes. There is just something about peaches and bourbon that just goes together like peas and carrots. Run, Forest, run.

I have a go-to cobbler recipe that I was going to use to make one for a dinner party this weekend. But then I stumbled upon Paula Deen's recipe... and sometimes, you know you have to do it Paula's way. I mean, I may choose my recipe over hers for a tossed salad or something. But for peach cobbler, I thought Paula deserved a try!

This was the hardest part of making this cobbler. Peeling and slicing 4 cups of peaches. And, to tell you the truth, next time I will peel and slice more. I definitely felt like there needed to be more fruit in the cobbler. Don't get me wrong, it was DELICIOUS, but who ever turned down extra peaches???

These get put into a saucepan with some water and part of the sugar. This mixture needs to simmer for around 10 minutes to get a little thick and bubbly.

Are you getting excited yet? I could stop right here and eat this up! But I didn't! I put the stick of butter in my casserole dish (Am I the only one who is surprised that there is only one stick in Paula's recipe?) and sat that in the oven while my peaches cooked and the oven pre-heated so it could melt.

While I was waiting, I mixed my dry ingredients together. The recipe called for self rising flour but I only had all purpose. No problem! I just mixed in 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder and a teaspoon of salt to my flour.

I added the milk to the dry ingredients and whisked everything together.

By the time the batter was ready, the butter was melted.

So I poured the batter over the melted butter and had. to. resist. stirring...

Then I spooned the fruit and syrup gently over the top of the butter-batter layers. You can stick it in the oven just like this. Or...

You can sprinkle it with cinnamon first, as Paula suggests. Next time, I'll add a cinnamon-sugar mixture mixture to the top. Then I baked it for about 30 minutes.

It came out so wonderful! While it was baking, I whipped up some Bourbon Whipped Cream to slather onto my cobbler!

This dish is one that I will make again! And soon!

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Friday, July 15, 2011

Bourbon Spice Cupcakes

Yesterday was my dear friend, Emily's, birthday! I have been thinking about what to make for her all week! I wanted to make her something a little different...

I remembered this cake recipe that I used from The Pampered Chef a few years ago for a Caramel Bourbon Spice Cake. It starts with a cake mix but I always prefer cakes made from scratch so I looked for a spice cake recipe and found an awesome one at The Hungry Mouse for a Buttermilk Spice Cake. I will print this recipe at the bottom of the page as I did make one adjustment that I'll share with you, but there's already a nice tutorial for this cake there.

Once I made the cupcakes, I went back to The Pampered Chef recipe for the filling and topping. I decided to use the filling recipe as a start for the frosting on this cupcake and the caramel topping as a drizzle. I modified the filling by adding more whipping cream and less sugar. I made the caramel topping from scratch instead of from melting store bought caramel candy.

This turned out perfectly. Most of the people who tried this, had two. It was that good. Even my husband who doesn't like spice cake wanted to eat the whole pan of these! And most importantly, Emily liked them!

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Buttermilk Spice Cupcakes

adapted from The Hungry Mouse

2 c cake flour, sifted

3/4 c sugar

3/4 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloves

2 tsp ground ginger

3/4 tsp salt

3/4 c brown sugar, packed

8 tbsp (1 stick) butter, softened

3/4 c buttermilk

2 eggs, room temperature

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pans with paper lines for 24 cupcakes.

Sift dry ingredients together into the bowl of yor mixer. Using the paddle attachment, mix it a bit to ensure that everything is combined. Add the milk and butter and mix until just incorporated. Add eggs and beat for 1-2 minutes to get a fluffy batter.

Fill cupcake liners evenly with batter. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until cake center bounces back when pressed. Cool.

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Bourbon Whipped Topping

2 tbsp bourbon

1/2 tsp unflavored gelatin

2 c heavy whipping cream, chilled

1/4 c sugar

Place bourbon in small bowl. Sprinkle gelatin on top and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Microwave for 10 seconds and stir. Repeat up to 2 times until all gelatin is dissolved. Add this to the bowl of your mixer, along with whipping cream. Start mixer on low and gradually increase speed to high and allow cream to form stiff peaks. Slowly add sugar as the cream is mixing.

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Spiked Caramel Sauce

1/2 c sugar

3 tbsp butter

1 tbsp bourbon

1 tbsp heavy cream

Add sugar and butter to a small pan and heat over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. This will take several minutes but it will come together and look like a nice thick golden caramel. Add cream. Continue to stir until completely incorporated and desired thickness has been reached. Remove from heat. After cooling down, add bourbon and stir into sauce.

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