Eggnog Cake

I found this recipe online and it makes a pretty amazing cake, even if the recipe is a tad labor intensive. Especially the frosting. I made it twice over the holidays for various company parties and plan to make it again. The cake is pretty white, so is the frosting, so you can obviously color it to suit your needs.

Ingredients

Cake:

• 4 eggs, at room temperature

• 1/2 cup eggnog, room temperature

• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 
1 3/4 cups cake flour
• 
1 1/2 cups sugar

• 2 tsp baking powder
• 
3/4 tsp salt

• 1/2 tsp nutmeg

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into 16 pieces  

Frosting:

• 5 egg whites
• 
1 cup sugar
• 
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

• pinch of salt

• 2 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature

• 1-2 Tbsp eggnog
• 
1 tsp vanilla extract 

Directions

Cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Spray 2 9-inch cake pans with non-stick cooking spray and line the bottom with parchment paper
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, eggnog, and vanilla.
4. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. 
5. With a mixer on medium low, add the butter one piece at a time to the dry ingredients until the mixture looks sandy, and just start to come together. 
6. Add half of the wet mixture and mix on low until it just comes together. 
7. Increase the speed to medium high speed and beat until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. 
8. Reduce mixer speed to medium, and add the remaining egg mixture in a slow, steady stream.
9. Continue mixing until thoroughly combined, scraping the bowl, as needed.
10. Pour batter evenly into the pans and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs clinging to it.
11. Cool for a few minutes, the run a knife around the edges of the pans and flip cakes onto a cooling rack.

Frosting:

1. In a medium bowl set over a pot of simmering water, combine the egg whites, sugar, nutmeg, and salt. 
2. Heat the mixture, whisking often, until it reaches 160 degrees and the sugar is dissolved. Be careful, the mixture temp rises quickly.
3. Pour into a large bowl and whisk on medium high speed until stiff peaks form, about 8-10 minutes. The mixture should also be room temperature, at this point.
4. With the mixer on medium speed, add the butter, 1 piece at a time, and beat until incorporated before adding another piece. 
5. Continue to beat until thick and smooth (if it looks curdled or soupy, just keep beating it until smooth again, another 3 minutes or so).
6. Stir in the vanilla and eggnog until incorporated and tint with food coloring, as desired.

Thoughts:
This cake is like the holidays in cake form to me. I might try upping the eggnog flavor in the cake next time I do this.

Next Time:

• Maybe some allspice?
• Add more eggnog to the cake