Cake #32 Irish Cream Bundt Cake

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My doctor's appointment last week went better then I could have hoped for. Everyone seems very invested in getting me back out of their system and has a very we beat this once, we'll do it again attitude. Which I am terribly grateful for. That said, it wasn't like I went to the office and we held hands and sang Kumbaya. There was a lot of testing and much to my horror, on their pain assessment I went from a 15 (banged up regular adult human) to a 51 (get this women a stretcher and morphine drip). That was a bit of a shock.

I started taking maintenance meds and on Monday went for an easy paved bike ride.  In theory, non-impact, gentle movement should help me regain strength and make me feel better. But, about 3.5 miles down the trail I started fainting. So I signaled I was stopping, pulled my bike over, stepped away from my bike and collapsed on the sidewalk.  So much for non-impact! While I was impressed that I managed to get off my bike, with total blindness,  before crumpling, it was still a hard fall. My bike helmet protected my noggin but I sprained my index finger, hurt my shoulder and my right collar bone area and right foot are pretty sore. Falling down when you have back problems is no picnic so this week has been suck-tastic. For example, I tried to shower but could neither reach up to wash my hair or bend down to shave my legs. A shower without shampoo or shaving is really just standing around getting wet - something I'd gladly skip.

But, at our house, we plan ahead for suck-tastic so I dug through my pile of easy (read: doctored cake mix) cakes to try when hauling out flour and butter is too much. And since things are especially challenging right now, I decided to make the booziest cake ever. *grin*

Irish Cream Bundt Cake

This recipe has everything I love about cake in it. For starters, lots and lots of flavor. I hate recipes that claim to be "zesty" or "intense" and then end up tasting like someone walked through the room eating an orange while you were baking. Not okay.

It's also large. This is a must with three teenage boys.

There is no frosting. Hooray. I don't need to rant tell you again how I don't like a ton-o-frosting or how I think it always steals the spotlight from the cake, do I? Glaze is the best of both worlds.

And I feel I need to explain myself regarding the cheap-o Irish Cream. I'm strictly a top-drawer liquor drinker but when baking I'm willing to cut a few corners. I didn't notice any difference in the cake and at a third the price of Bailey's it was a good substitute. Would I drink it? Absolutely not.

Ingredients

Cake:

1 cup chopped pecans (I was scared at how much this was so I reduced it to 3/4 C. The pecans were AWESOME so when I make this again I'll use the full cup)
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup Irish cream liqueur

Glaze:

1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup water
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup Irish cream liqueur
Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan. Sprinkle chopped nuts evenly over bottom of pan.

In a large bowl, combine cake mix and pudding mix. Mix in eggs, 1/4 cup water, 1/2 cup oil and 3/4 cup Irish cream liqueur.

 Beat for 5 minutes at high speed.

Pour batter over nuts in pan. Drop or tap the pan a couple of times against the counter to get rid of air bubbles.

Bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan,

then invert onto the serving dish.

Prick top and sides of cake. You'll notice I have some flour that didn't bake into the cake. I just chip it off with a skewer, brush it off with a pastry brush or don't worry about it.

Spoon glaze over top and brush onto sides of cake. The glaze pooled on the plate so I'd scoop it up with the brush and bring it back up the sides. I did this for about five minutes until it was all absorbed and beginning to set.

Repeat until all glaze is used up.

I made the glaze as soon as I popped the cake in the oven to bake. This worked out wonderfully as it gave the glaze time to cool and thicken before I tried to get it to stick to the cake.


To make the glaze:

In a saucepan, combine butter, 1/4 cup water and 1 cup sugar.

Bring to a boil and continue boiling for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

 Remove from heat and stir in 1/4 cup Irish cream.

I hope you make this one, it has a very 'special occasion' vibe to it and amazing flavor. 

FYI: I took pictures before the glaze turned opaque as I had no idea that it wasn't going to remain shiny and jewel-like. It's actually prettier once it has set an hour or two and developed an attractive off-white shell.

Recipe from All Recipes.com

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