Brown Sugar Eggnog Cake

Somehow, whenever TFAW are in a baking rut the winter season seems to kickstart us back in action. In A-Tooch’s family, Christmas is a multi-day event. Day one came early this year and so did the need for a seasonal recipe.

In the quest to find an easily transportable dessert (yes, I Googled this exact term), I landed on dense bunt cake recipes. I can vouch for the durability of this cake — it flipped over twice on my cab/train commute in a massive snowstorm. The pecan streusel and warm brown buttery sauce really put this ordinary cake over the top. I made the warm sauce topping once I reached my destination. Super simple and extremely decadent.

Brown Sugar Eggnog Cake
adapted from Betty Crocker recipes

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup eggnog

For pecan streusel:
1/4 cup finely chopped pecans
2 tbsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease bottom and side of bunt pan. In medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. In large bowl, beat 1 1/2 cups brown sugar, the granulated sugar and softened butter with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly, thenon medium speed about 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add 2 teaspoons vanilla. Beat in flour mixture alternately with 3/4 cup eggnog on low speed until smooth.

Pour half of the mixture into pan. Combine pecan streusel ingredients in small bowl and sprinkle generously over the first layer of mixture. Fill the pan with the remaining — mixture will not fill to the top and this is OK.

Bake for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool for about 10 minutes before remove from pan to cooling rack.

Before you are ready to serve the cake, prepare the sauce. In a small saucepan, heat sauce ingredients except vanilla to boiling over medium heat, stirring constantly; boil and stir 2 minutes. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Stir in 1 teaspoon vanilla.