Alcohol Infused Cake Recipe

My favorite way to make an alcohol flavored cake is to just soak the layers after they are baked.  So I'll bake, say, my chocolate cake and brush or spoon some kahlua over it when I torte the layers and the flavor comes through using less and you avoid messing with the chemistry of your cake batter. 

Did you have a particular flavor in mind?

I often just substitute all or most of the liquid for the alcohol I want to use. I made a great Bailey's cake from the basic WASC recipe. I wanted a stronger flavor, though, so I also bathed the layers in Bailey's and then put Bailey's buttercream (my standard BC recipe using Bailey's for the liquid). It's the gelatin bubble cake in my gallery - the one with the nice, pretty Bailey's color. Boy was it yummy! I think lilmissbakesalot's idea of bathing your layers in the liquor is a good one - it DOES give a more concentrated flavor, although if you're using hard liquor like whiskey or rum, it might be a little overpowering. In that case you might want to add the liquor to a simple syup before putting it on your layers.

That will depend on your recipe though.  A scratch cake won't always handle that kind of substitution.  I know my vanilla cake would not be happy with that substitution.  So it really depends on how you bake.

I would ask him what his favorite drink is... it is usually easy to translate it into cake. 

You're right about not every recipe allowing for alcohol being added ad libitum, lilmissbakesalot! But so far the WASC recipe (which, of course, isn't a scratch cake but a doctored cake mix) has been able to handle everything I've thrown at it. I'm sure I'll hit the wall with it someday, but it hasn't happened so far.

Right... mix based recipes can handle a lot of abuse since they have that extra leavening and the stabilizers in them.  I have yet to meet one that I like though.  Personal preference completely. 

More important to ask the customer, does he mean a a cake baked with alcohol in the batter or a cake doused with alcohol after baking.

Because there is a MAJOR difference in the final result...alcohol in the batter will bake out.

It doesn't bake out all of the way.  A cake with alcohol in it will still have about 25% of the alohol content after baking for 30 minutes or so.  It depends on how long it is cooked.  Even after 2.5 hours you will still have some alcohol left (and a VERY overdone cake... LOL).  Flambe-ing actually leaves behind the most alcohol... you'd think it wouldn't though since it burns so big.  I'm guessing though that someone requesting a cake with alcohol is okay with there being alcohol in the final result.  When you think about it though... normal vanilla extract is about 80 proof... lemon extract is around 150 proof (pure alcohol is 200 proof).  Baliey's is 35 proof.  You can find alcohol free extracts, but usually you have to mail order them.  Lots of cultures have religious restrictions against alcohol, and recovering addicts and such too.

Things you never think about right?  LOL

I have no issue with alcohol in foods.  I cook with wines and spirits all the time and my kiddos eat it too.  The amount of alcohol in one serving of the entire meal is so low they would never feel drunk or anything.  Even if you ate the whole thing you wouldn't feel it... well you might feel it later when you have digested that much food... LOL.  We have no issues with alcoholism in my family, and I have no problem with them having a sip of wine at the holiday table (they hate it anyway... LOL).