The Best Boozy Cakes for the Holidays
If the things you look forward to the most during the holidays are wintery drinks and sweet treats, why not combine the two? For centuries, traditional holiday treats like stollen have been flavored and preserved with alcohol. These days, you can find a wide variety of cakes that combine seasonal flavors and high-quality spirits. Here are a few of the most exciting traditional and non-traditional infused holiday treats:
Hot Buttered Rum Cake photo courtesy of Justin Kennedy
Rum cake is a traditional holiday treat throughout the Caribbean. The version made by Parkway Bakery and Tavern—the oldest po’ boy shop in New Orleans—adds a twist by mixing the rum with butter for a flavor similar to a hot buttered rum cocktail. The recipe originally came from head chef Justin Kennedy’s aunt and calls for a vanilla cake flavored with Bacardi rum, which is dipped into a rum-butter sauce right after it’s baked. The restaurant ships the cake with extra rum-butter sauce for serving.
Limoncello Whoopie Pie photo courtesy of Fabrizia Spirits
If you’re looking for something light and bright, try the limoncello whoopie pies made by the Fabrizia Lemon Baking Company. Launched in November of 2020, this new branch of the family-owned, Italian-American company Fabrizia Spirits uses limoncello to flavor baked goods. The whoopie pies are made of light-as-air domes of lemony cake sandwiched together with a hefty helping of sweet vanilla frosting.
Tres leches cake—a Latin American specialty made of vanilla cake soaked with condensed milk, evaporated milk, and cream—is traditionally served at a wide variety of celebrations. The “Milk’N Berries®” version of this classic made by Porto’s Bakery and Café in Los Angeles is flavored with a touch of brandy and topped with fresh berries. It makes a stunning holiday dessert.
Blondery Baileys cake jar photo credit Jaclyn Warren
This new, seasonal treat from Blondery (a direct-to-consumer bakery from pastry chef Auzerais Bellamy) was developed in partnership with Bailey’s Irish Cream. The decadent dessert in a jar is made up of layers of devil’s food cake, chocolate-espresso blondies flavored with stout, caramel jam, and a rich Bailey’s and white chocolate ganache.
For a delicate bite of cake with a festive eggnog flavor, check out the eggnog petit fours made by Valerie Confections in Los Angeles. The beautiful little confections are made with spiced buttercake layered with bourbon ganache and are dipped in white chocolate and topped with edible gold leaf. (The company also makes champagne petit fours dipped in dark chocolate—a lovely New Year’s treat.)
Fruitcakes
Last but not least, there’s the quintessential boozy holiday treat, the fruitcake. This classic loaf has been the butt of many holiday jokes over the years, but anyone who’s ever tried a really good version knows that when a fruitcake is made with love and care (and with freshly candied fruit, instead of the day-glow mass market versions) there’s nothing like it.
Market Hall Bakery fruitcake photo courtesy of Market Hall
If you’re fruitcake curious, start by ordering an old-fashioned version from Market Hall Foods in Oakland. Their cake is flavored with orange and lemon zest and filled with dried fruit from California, including currants, figs, and apricots, all of which are soaked in brandy. Once baked, the cake is given a brandy soak and sits for a minimum of four weeks to give the flavors a chance to blend.
If you’re a fruitcake aficionado, this might be the year to splurge on the spectacular version from Robert Lambert in Sonoma. The pastry chef, chocolatier, food stylist, and jam maker offers three different versions: The classic Winter Fruitcake is full of dried fruit like apricots, cherries, and nectarines (which are plumped with eau de vie), a variety of nuts, and lots of citrus zest; the finished loaf is soaked in cognac. The White Fruitcake—which comes from Lambert’s grandmother’s recipe—combines nuts and candied fruit peels with the glacéed cherries and pineapple that you find in many old-fashioned fruit cakes and is soaked in cognac flavored with spices. Lastly, the Dark Fruitcake includes nuts, dates, figs, prunes, cherries, and lots of citrus zests and spices and is soaked in whiskey. All three varieties sell out quickly, so plan ahead!