Description
My lifelong favorite Christmas dessert is my grandmother’s bourbon bars (a cookie bar topped with a boozy buttercream), and this year I decided to reinterpret it as a plant-based loaf cake. The orange-scented cake is basically the same basic recipe called for in the nuts-and-seeds loaf cake (all the more reason to master it!), with chocolate chips and toasted pecans added. The bourbon glaze goes heavy on the liquor, and has already notched wins this holiday season in the category of fuzzing frustrations into a tolerable background hum. Enjoy.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
The cake
- 3/4 cup plus 2 tbsps sugar
- 1 tsp (packed) orange zest, from about 3/4 of a medium orange
- 1 Tbsp orange juice
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tsps olive oil
- 3/4 cup plus 1 tsp plant-based milk, unsweetened
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 cup chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup pecans, toasted and chopped (plus more for decorating)
The glaze
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 2 Tbsps plant-based butter or margarine
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 3 Tbsps bourbon, or more as needed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Spray a 8.5-by-4.5-inch loaf pan lightly with baking spray (you can optionally also line it with parchment paper for even easier removal).
- Make the cake. In a large bowl, combine the sugar and orange zest. Mix together with your hands until the mixture is sandy and fragrant. To the same bowl, add the orange juice, olive oil, and plant-based milk, and whisk until combined. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and kosher salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix just until the batter is smooth and no lumps remain. Mix in the chocolate chips and pecans.
- Pour into the prepared cake pan and bake for 45 to 55 minutes, or until the cake springs back when poked gently in the middle (or a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean). Allow to cool to room temperature before glazing.
- While the cake bakes, make the glaze. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the powdered sugar, plant-based butter or margarine, vanilla, and 3 tablespoons of bourbon. Mix on low speed until combined, then raise the speed to medium and mix another 1 or 2 minutes until no lumps remain, scraping down the bowl as needed. The texture should be like a very thin frosting or a very thick glaze, able to slowly lean and slouch its way down the sides of the cake once you’ve spread it on the top. If you need to thin it out more to achieve that texture, add up to another teaspoon of bourbon. Spread the glaze on the top of the cooled cake and, if you’d like, optionally sprinkle on some extra toasted pecans.
Notes
- This cake can also be baked in a 9-inch round cake pan. Reduce the baking temperature to 325°F and reduce the bake time to 27 to 35 minutes.
- Cake will keep, tightly wrapped, for 5 days.