Adding sake to dessert recipes will give your sweet treats an exciting and complex twist that most folks won’t be able to place, but they’ll just know it tastes great.
Here’s a bundt cake recipe using sake in both the batter and glaze. Any sake will work. If you use nigori sake (the unfiltered type) it will lend more sweetness than the clear varieties. Remember the same rule as cooking with wine; if you wouldn’t drink it, don’t cook with it.
Ingredients
- Cake:
- 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 cups white granulated sugar
- 5 eggs, at room temperature
- 3 1/3 cups cake flour
- 1 Tbsp + ¼ tsp baking powder
- ¾ tsp kosher salt
- ½ cup sake – nigori or other
- ¼ cup fresh squeezed orange juice
- zest of 1 orange
- ½ cup almond flour or additional granulated sugar for pan
- Glaze:
- 6 Tbsp butter
- 1 ½ cup confectioners’ sugar
- ¼ cup sake – nigori or other
Directions
- Preheat oven to 325°.
- (Do not prep your bundt pan until right before pouring your batter in. This will prevent sticking, especially if you have a pan with lots of nooks and crannies!)
- In a mixer, beat butter, zest, sugar and salt together until light and fluffy.
- Whisk together flour and baking soda together. In a separate container, mix sake and juice together.
- Add eggs one at a time to butter/sugar mixture, beating and scraping between each egg. After all eggs are fully incorporated, add flour and liquid mixtures alternately – 3 batches of flour and 2 liquid, ending with flour. Beat until just incorporated.
- Now, prep your pan! Spray pan thoroughly with nonstick spray. If you don’t have this, use a neutral-flavored oil on a paper towel. Butter/flour mixture has a tendency to stick in the crevices of fancier bundt pans. After the pan is thoroughly greased, toss almond flour or sugar to coat inside of pan, knocking out excess.
- Pour batter into pan and bake 50-65 minutes, until skewer comes out clean. Remove from oven and let sit for five minutes. Make sure edges aren’t sticking to pan, then invert onto a plate. If cake doesn’t fall out by itself, you can put it back in the oven for a few minutes then remove and immediately try inverting again.
- While your cake is baking prepare your glaze. Microwave or heat glaze ingredients and stir until melted. Carefully brush over cake while it’s still warm – it will be clear. It is meant to impart flavor and additional moisture. Let the cake cool before cutting.