Russian Redneck Birthday Cake

This recipe is from the vault. Actually it's from Epicurious.com, but I made it this last May for my favorite Russian Redneck. It's dazzling: the pralines are quick-n-easy, the cake layers are packed with pecan pieces, the cake stays moist from lots of bourbon, and the frosting is fabulous.

First, the praline topping:
Who knew that tossing pecan pieces with egg whites and brown sugar and baking them could result in such yummyness? It's difficult not to eat them while making the cake.



Moving on to the cake batter:
It's pretty important to use cake flour and unsalted butter, but I did substitute lowfat milk for the whole milk, and it turned out fine. I also threw in a few more pecan pieces than the recipe called for. The cake bakes up beautifully; in fact, I suspect mine were a tad overdone.



The assembly requires bourbon, and lots of it. I believe my cake would not have turned out as gorgeous and tasty if I had not been sampling the Maker's Mark while I was putting it together. This is my favorite bourbon to bake with because its fragrance, to me, is pure vanilla and fine tobacco. The recipe suggests you brush a bourbon syrup over each of the layers prior to frosting it. I suggest you make thrice the amount of bourbon syrup and soak the layers in that goodness.

Finally, the frosting:
Vanilla Cream Cheese. Too comforting to be elegant, but I tend to think that all homemade frosting is impressive. I impressed myself with this one.





Those lovely lilacs are from my backyard. Seattle in Springtime is something else.


Here I am with a lit birthday cake. I may be a tad lit myself, come to think on it. It was a Russian Redneck's birthday party, and the Bud Light was flowing.

The cake is even better two days later with a tumbler of Maker's Mark...