When it comes to baking with spirits, bourbon is a Wine Chef favorite. The liquor’s sweet spiciness adds a rich and nuanced flavor to baked goods, especially brown sugar and butter-based cakes. This easy-to-prepare date cake is perfect for the busy holiday season when there never seems to be enough time to get things done. And there’s no need to worry about ending up with a dry cake—the combination of chewy dates with butter and bourbon always yields a moist (and delicious!) cake.

For this recipe, I used Taconic Distillery’s Double Barrel Maple Bourbon, a product of two Hudson Valley classics: bourbon and maple syrup.

Taconic Distillery, located in the Hudson Valley of New York, crafts fine spirits using natural spring water and grains grown in New York. For their Maple Bourbon, the spirit is aged for at least two years in American oak. The distillery then decants the whiskey and uses those same barrels to age maple syrup from their farm. Once the maple syrup is finished aging, it is bottled and the bourbon is returned to the barrels to sit and soak up its maple richness.

The resulting bourbon is a beautiful, dark amber color with notes of—you guessed it!—maple. But there’s a lot more: caramel, orange peel, vanilla, and pepper. The long finish is dry, with a mere hint of smoke. It was fantastic served neat, but would also be great in a Manhattan or an Old-Fashioned cocktail.

Adapted from a recipe on allrecipes.com.

Ingredients

2 teaspoons butter

2 teaspoons flour

1 & 1/4 cups water

1/4 cup bourbon

1/4 cup raisins

2 cups dates, pitted and chopped (I used Trader Joe’s organic, pitted Medjool dates)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

Glaze Ingredients

4 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed

2 tablespoons heavy cream

1 tablespoon bourbon

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (pecans would be good too)

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9 inch square pan. In a saucepan, combine water, bourbon, and raisins. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in chopped dates and baking soda. Set aside.

2) In a large bowl, cream together 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the vanilla. Mix in the flour and salt until just combined. Add date mixture and pour batter into prepared pan.

3) Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove cake from oven, and set oven to broil.

4) Make glaze: In a saucepan, melt 4 tablespoons of butter. Stir in brown sugar, cream, bourbon and chopped nuts. Spread mixture over warm cake and place under broiler until lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Watch carefully - it burns easily under the broiler. Cool before serving.

Happy Holidays!