It came to me as I sat down to write about the new cake I’ve been experimenting with for this inevitable time of year: There should probably be a cake named in honor of recently deceased Louisville native son Hunter S. Thompson, given that the title of the magazine story that kicked off his “gonzo journalism” career was “The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved.” Even though I am leery of all desserts deemed decadent, this one actually is at the tsk-tsk /files/storyimages/of the indulgence scale. Let us consider it a gonzo cake.
Naturally, taking Thompson’s proclivities into account, the cake involves bourbon. But not just any bourbon. Regular readers of this column may recall that the liquor is not my favorite beverage on earth. However, as with many other endearing elements of life, age it a bit and it begins to grow on me. Lately I’ve taken a shine to the small-batch bourbons, particularly the one known as Pure Kentucky, aged at least 12 years and 107 proof.
Now there are those who would say I should be simmered in a vat of sour mash for wasting such bourbon on anything other than sipping and savoring. To these people I apologize, but I also answer them thusly: What Julia Child held to be true about wine (don’t use any grade in the cooking process that you wouldn’t drink) I hold to be true about whiskey. If I like it well enough to sip, I’m going to like it that much more baked into something.
Regular readers may also recall that dessert is not my forte. In the many years of this column’s existence, I believe I have written about dessert a total of five times, and each of those times I have featured a beloved friend’s most in-demand dessert. Two big reasons underlie this deficiency on my part. The first is that of the four taste sensations (salty, sour, bitter, sweet), the last interests me the least. The second is, if I’m going to have sweet, give me chocolate, and make it bittersweet chocolate at that. However, there are certain cakes (namely, those containing booze) that never fail to win me over.
Outstanding among these was my fri/files/storyimages/Nancy’s amaretto cake that I wrote about last year. It proved to be very popular dessert because it is a) easy, and b) delicious beyond measure. The idea for the glaze on the cake featured this month is adapted from the glaze for the amaretto cake. Instead of butter, there is a combination of cream of coconut and sweetened condensed milk. Instead of amaretto there is, of course, the bourbon, which penetrates every last crumb of the cake, infusing it with boozy warmth. Topping it all off is toasted coconut.
The idea for the cake batter could not have come to me in a simpler way. You might recall that the amaretto cake recipe, involving as it did a Duncan Hines cake mix, was a true cheat. A food writer can get away with that kind of shortcut only once without being sent off to culinary school. But here’s something almost as easy. The cake batter in the recipe below is a bl/files/storyimages/of two recipes from the original Joy of Cooking. And it wasn’t like I had to search very hard.
With the flip of a page, I had the two cakes combined into one. With a bit of experimentation in regard to the wet and dry ingredients, I had it ready to receive the rich bourbon glaze that finishes it off.
BOURBON CHOCOLATE COCONUT CAKE
For the cake:
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter - plus a bit more for the pan
1 3/4 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup flaked coconut, toasted
2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour, plus more for the pan
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup good-quality cocoa powder, such as Valrhona or Droste
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup canned coconut milk
1/4 cup water
For the glaze:
1 can cream of coconut
1 can sweetened condensed milk
3/4 top quality bourbon
Arrange a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a Bundt pan or tube pan. You ca even use a mixture of flour, to prevent white spots on the cake. Cream the butter until light and fluffy. Mix in the sugar. One at a time, mix in the eggs, then the vanilla, and half of the coconut, occassionally scraping down the mixing bowl.
In another bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, ground cloves, baking soda and salt. Add a third of this flour mixture to the sweetened mixture; then add a third of the coconut milk. Repeat, mixing after each addition. Use a little water if the batter seems too dry. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and bake until springy and dry, about 45 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven.
In a small, heavy-bottomed pan on top of the stove, whisk together the cream of coconut, the condensed milk and the bourbon. bring it to the boiling point and let it simmer for just a few minutes. Whisk in the remaining toasted coconut.
While the cake is still warm, pull it away from the sides of the pan and slowly drizzle the hot topping over it until you've poured it all on. Let the cake stay in the pan for 45 minutes, soaking up all the liquid. Turn it upside down onto a cake plate, and let it cool just a bit more before serving.
