Eggnog Sponge Cake with Whipped Cream
Eggnog has a bit of an old fashioned reputation but let someone try a sip, even rather doubtful gourmets, and you will see a hint of appreciation on their faces.
It used to be a popular drink in bars, both of my grandmothers used to love it and even made their own in their kitchens. This was once a true party classic, in the 1950s and 60s! Today, people pour it over their ice cream or cake like my mother who always keeps a little bottle of it in her fridge for this reason. Some make it at home for Christmas but it feels like it lost its popularity. I find this unfortunate, I have quite a soft spot for it - eggnog is creamy, smooth, sweet and eggy. I like to drink it sometimes, as a digestif, preferably out of tiny old fashioned glasses with a short stem - 50s style to make the experience complete.
I believe that something that was so passionately enjoyed a few decades ago - and that tastes so good - is reason enough to be included in my today’s kitchen activities. I'm up for an easy Easter cake, a spongy cake made with lots of eggnog. A few days ago my aunt Ursula gave me two 3d-cake pans and wrote down one of her recipes for a juicy cake laced with the yellow liqueur that her own mother used to like so much. I doubled the recipe and baked it in lovely rabbit and chicken molds (but you can use a 20cm / 8″ cake pan).
I prepared some whipped cream with even more eggnog while the cakes were in the oven and noticed at one point that the cakes started to overflow. Luckily, my miscalculation didn't do the final cake any harm. It rose and dropped off the molds like a volcano and continued to bake on the tray but turned out as spongy and juicy as the cake in the molds.
This is a quick cake. After only 30 minutes in the oven, I was rewarded with a delicious eggnog-y teatime treat, best dipped into eggnog whipped cream and enjoyed with an extra shot of this special liqueur from the past, in an old fashioned glass of course. Cheers to our grandmothers!
Eggnog Sponge Cake with Whipped Cream
For a 20cm / 8″ cake pan you need
organic eggs 4
granulated sugar 140g / 3/4 cup
a pinch of fresh vanilla (scraped out of a vanilla pod)
vegetable oil (I use sunflower oil) 140ml / 2/3 cup
eggnog 140ml / 2/3 cup plus one shot for the whipped cream
plain flour 220g / 1 2/3 cups
baking powder 2 teaspoons
a pinch of salt
heavy cream 200ml / 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon
Set the oven to 170°C / 340°F (preferably convection setting) and butter the cake pan.
Beat the eggs together with the sugar and vanilla until fluffy. Slowly, add the oil and and eggnog and continue mixing. Combine the flour, salt and baking powder and mix quickly into the liquid mixture. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 40 minutes or until golden brown. Check with a skewer, it should come out clean. In the 2 figure molds, the cake needed just 30 minutes. Let the cake cool for 5 minutes.
Whip the cream, stir in a shot of eggnog and serve with the cake.
