This fruit dessert from Kentucky is marinated in whiskey and has a distinctive flavor. If you can wait that long, which I can’t, you should attempt to prepare this dish a month in advance! For the signature bourbon wrap that gives this cake its name, you’ll need some cheesecloth.
| Prep Time: | 45 mins |
| Cook Time: | 4 hrs |
| Additional Time: | 17 days 15 mins |
| Total Time: | 17 days 5 hrs |
| Servings: | 14 |
| Yield: | 1 10-inch cake |
Ingredients
- 2 cups bourbon
- 8 ounces golden raisins
- 16 ounces red candied cherries, halved
- ¾ pound butter
- 2 cups white sugar
- 6 egg yolks
- 6 egg whites
- 2 cups packed brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 pound chopped pecans
- 1 cup bourbon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F (135 degrees C). Grease a 10-inch tube pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.
- Soak raisins and cherries in 2 cups of bourbon or whiskey for 48 hours. Before making cake, drain well and reserve bourbon.
- In a separate bowl, mix flour, nutmeg, and baking powder. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, cream butter with white sugar. In a separate small bowl, cream yolks and brown sugar until very light.
- In a large bowl, combine two sugar mixtures and blend well.
- Alternately, add flour mixture and reserved bourbon in three stages, mixing well with each addition.
- Add soaked fruit and fold in. Add nuts and fold in.
- In a clean medium bowl, whip egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold into batter until evenly distributed; pour into the prepared 10-inch tube pan.
- Bake cake in the bottom of the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 4 to 5 hours. Ovens vary, so it may take longer than 5 hours.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes before turning out. When almost cool, brush sides and inside hole heavily with bourbon. Wrap cake with a bourbon-soaked cheesecloth, then with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight and saturate again with bourbon. Cover with plastic wrap and then with foil and store for at least 2 weeks in a cool, dry place.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 1077 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 131 g |
| Cholesterol | 140 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 5 g |
| Protein | 11 g |
| Saturated Fat | 15 g |
| Sodium | 234 mg |
| Sugars | 86 g |
| Fat | 46 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I’ve made this recipe many times and everyone loves it. Note – use a high quality bourbon, especially for the post-baking soaks. Also note – use MUCH more bourbon than called for. This bad boy can hold it’s own – use this word to guide your bourbon additions: Supersaturation. Follow the directions to the T…but once you put this in a cool place, pull it out once a week and give it another drizzle/brushing of bourbon. If you make it the Saturday after Thanksgiving, it’ll be ready for the mid-December “unveiling.” It’s not a particularly pretty thing, but oh so tasty. Don’t smoke around this cake.
I have been making this cake for many years now and it is now a tradition. I don’t understand how anyone could follow this recipe and not have a yummy cake. About to make it again… and I am excited about it, again. Yum factor of 10.
This is a fabulous fruitcake ! The bourbon flavor comes through without overwhelming the tastebuds. I added an extra cup of cherries and will add even more and more nuts next year.
I hate fruit cake, but this cake is awesome! My husband’s mom made this cake every year when he was growing up, and he said it tastes just like hers. The first time I made it, it spilled all over the bottom of my oven; now I use two pans. I have made it the past two years for Christmas. I bake it around Thanksgiving, wrap it in bourbon-soaked cheesecloth, and once a week, I brush bourbon on it. It is wonderful!
I have made this cake for many years and love it, however I make 2 changes. I use all raisins, half dark and half light. I also use only 2 cups of flour and it makes perfect amount for bundt pan and the cake is very light, unlike some of the other reviews which claim it is too crusty and heavy.
I’ve been making this cake using this recipe for years at xmas and it always comes out great! My family loves it, I put a lot more fruit and put dried cranberries too. I’ve never had the opportunity to see if it really last two weeks though, we eat it so fast!
I have been making this cake for years, first with my Grandma and then my Mom. We always made it at Christmas and gave them away as gifts. A lot of work, and a mixer won’t do after a point, You need to do it by hand. A wonderful cake indeed.
It’s part of our Christmas tradition.
I will be making this again. I made it in two pans-one a tube pan half full and the other was a large bread pan. Wrapped it in old flour bag cloths and soaked it in more bourbon. Wonderful. We waited two weeks to try them. They are gone. I gave one to my mother who always makes a plain white fruit cake that is very good but I think this beat it hands down. Bought more fruit and will be making them again this week. 🙂
Out of this world!!!! A must for the Christmas holidays!
Being a bonified Kentucky Gal, Ky Bourbon Pecan Cake was a very anticipated treat of the Christmas season. Mom always made them…I say them because she made several to give as gifts…the weekend after Thanksgiving and they soaked in bourbon until served Christmas through New Years. It’s not your regular fruitcake because it only has pecans, red candied cherries and raisins, not all that other yucky candied fruit that, in my opinion, gives fruitcake a bad rap. When made this way, it WILL change your mind on how delicious a GOOD fruitcake can be. Be generous in the soaking and use really good bourbon, not the cheapstuff because you WILL taste it. I’m making mine this weekend!
Fruitcake~Gross, you say, until you taste this one. It is awesome! The outer cake is firm but not hard and the inner cake is moist and so delicious. Have won over many fruitcake scoffers with this recipe. I did add candied pineapple and cranberries and chopped the fruit so it wasn’t huge hunks. Am ready to make more and convert more fruitcake haters!
This recipe has been in our family for years! We don’t soak the cakes in additional bourbon though. The recipe was published as “Tom Buchanan’s Whiskey Cake” -perhaps a reference to the character in the Great Gatsby? I never understood all the holiday fruit cake jokes because our family made this..then I learned it was more properly called a bourbon or whiskey cake!! My mother still gets requests every year!
Delicious!! Everyone raved about it!! A must try!! I will be making this every holiday!!
This is a very moist fruit cake. A dear friend of my late mother gave mom this cake recipe. So that kids can enjoy the cake with the adults, use grape juice, cranberry juice for a dark fruit cake, or light grape juice or apple juice for a light fruit cake. Reduce the 1lb of chopped pecans to 1.5 -2 cups chopped pecans. use more candied fruit, (fruitcake mix,, pineapple, cherries) and soak it in 3 cups fruit juice instead of 2 cups juice. also reduce both sugars to 1.5 cups each====4 cups sugar makes the cake toooooo sweet. Also, if you don’t have a 10inch cake pan (bunt is ttoooooo small for this cake) for this cake, use 2 10 inch bunt cake pans or 2-3 loaf cake pan. the 10 in tube cake pans are very hard to find unless you go to a specialty shop or mail order
Great cake and very moist.
This recipe is a very fond memory of my childhood growing up in Dallas. As a child, this cake was one of the things that got me excited about the holidays! My mom lost the recipe a few years ago & to my delight, I found it here. I highly recommend it!!! The cherries & raisons soaked in bourbon are the BEST!
I made this cake for Christmas and my family really liked it. I thought it was good too but maybe had too many pecans. It was also a bit too large for one bundt pan, but I put a cookie sheet under it in case it spilled over in the oven. It didn’t but almost did and that part got crunchy.
I’m giving this 3 stars only because perhaps I did something wrong, but this just didn’t work out well for me. I think it was overcooked, as the outside is VERY hard and can’t really be eaten. It is miles short on fruit, although I did add extra. I can hardly taste the alcohol, if at all. The middle is not bad, but overall a major disappointment for all the work, expense, and waiting.
I have been making this fruitcake since the mid 1980’s and it has never failed to get rave reviews. I have used mini loaf pans and given them as gifts. This is a favorite.
OMG, this cake is awesome. It sort of makes my tongue tingle! I received rave reviews from co-workers and neighbors for this cake. Yes, I might add a few more cherries next time because the cake is so dense and can feed so many people that it can handle another dozen cherries. I must say that this is not a recipe for children due to the alcohol, but I still gave it a 5 star rating because it deserves it. Thank you so much, Holly, for sharing this recipe. It will be a part of every Christmas from now on.