Sunday 17 January 2010

Advocaat cake



If you offer me a beverage of an alcoholic nature in December, nothing will please me more than the drink favoured by grannies across the UK – a snowball. What could be nicer, in the run up to Christmas, than drinking a glass of cold, fizzy, alcoholic custard? But what do you do with the leftover Advocaat come January, when the thought of drinking a snowball won’t appeal for another 11 months? You bake a cake...I find this is the answer to most of life’s great questions.

This cake is a light sponge flavoured with a generous slug of Advocaat. It tastes custardy and I got a very subtle hint of alcohol, but in truth, none of the other eaters did.

Any cake containing so much Advocaat and then a further 5 eggs could never claim to be healthy but – if it helps assuage your guilt – there’s no butter. Wahoo! Diet cake!!!! A bit of the Advocaat seemed to settle at the bottom of the cake, as you'll see in the next picture. Not sure why that happened but it didn't spoil either the taste or texture so don't worry if it happens to you:

This is a cracking cake to enjoy with a cup of tea, but I think you could also jazz it up with some cream and maybe some fruit for a dessert. Either way, I think you’ll like it!

Ingredients
5 eggs
250g icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
250ml vegetable oil
250ml Advocaat (I used Warninks)
125g plain flour
125g cornflour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

Method

- Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.

- Line a 20cm round springform tin with baking paper – ideally use an all-in-one liner as the batter is extremely runny.

- Whisk together the eggs, icing sugar and vanilla until they have combined and thickened slightly.

- Keeping the whisk running, gradually add the oil and Advocaat.

- Sift the flour, cornflour and baking powder into the wet ingredients and whisk until well combined and there are no lumps.

- Pour (it will be very runny) into the prepared tin and bake for approximately 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out cleanly. Mine took just over the hour – but only just.

- Leave to cool in the tin until you can safely handle to remove. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

- Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have made.

- Eat.


22 comments:

Suelle said...

This cake has a great looking texture - I'm almost tempted to buy some Advocaat to try it!

I was excited when I read the bit about 'no butter' - until I saw the vegetable oil in the ingredients list! LOL!

Maggie said...

What a great way to use up some of the Advocaat to make a cake. I love a 'snowball', but don't tell anyone!!

Liz Winterburn said...

I will be trying this out as I have advocaat left over from Christmas. mmm yummy! thanks for the recipe :) btw: your cake looks great

Choclette said...

Oh indeed I think I'll like it - i'm feeling all nostalgic for a snowball now. Although I'd dispute the lack of healthiness claims. Eggs are really good for you and I'd go for butter over vegetable oil any day (unless it was olive oil and I guess that would be a little too overpowering for a cake).

Maria said...

Lovely cake!

Cakelaw said...

LOL - of course it's a diet cake. It looks scrummy, regardless.

Sam said...

Sounds good! I've never tried advocaat but I love custard and I love cake!

Katie said...

I've never had Advocaat or a snowball but your description of it makes me think I've been missing out - a drink that tastes like custard!! Yum. Your cake looks goergeous, so tall and fluffy

Big Boys Oven said...

wish I can try this cake! :(

Art and Appetite said...

When I first saw this, I was stunned with the texture. The texture looks perfect!

Thanks for sharing this wonderful cake.

Lucie said...

This is stunning! It looks so light - wonderful way to use up Advocaat I have a very sorry half a bottle left from Christmas. I will certainly try this - thank you for sharing.

Liz Winterburn said...

Just wanted to say I've made this cake and it is wonderful. Hubby and I loved it so much, that I have another in the oven right now. Once again many thanks for sharing the recipe, it's greatly appreciated.

Becka said...

I wonder if you could add some lime in there somewhere and make it a snowball cake? ;) maybe a lime glaze...?

The Caked Crusader said...

Hi Becka

That sounds a brilliant idea - maybe make a lime glaze then pierce the cake when it comes out the oven and pour it over? It would be a variant of a lemon drizzle cake...but better!

Great idea!

Happy baking

edzbird said...

Made it this week - it's fantastic. The easiest and most successful cake I have ever made! I'm going to try adding glacé cherries next time.

Anonymous said...

I make this cake quite often but I use potato flour instead of corn flour. I have made it with corn flour but I find it gives your teeth a funny feel. You can get potato flour in a Chinese supermarket or in a very large Tesco store. At Tesco it's with the "ethnic foods" and is called "Farine". If using corn flour I'd recommend using 75g corn flour and 175g flour
BTW for those of you who like to bung it all in one big bowl without dirtying a measuring cup:
250ml of oil weighs approx. 230g and 250ml of Advocaat weighs approx. 300g.

The Caked Crusader said...

Hi Anonymous

Thanks for the tip about the potato flour; I don't like using cornflour much as I often get the funny teeth feel you mention. I will try out your recommendation

Happy baking

Unknown said...

How would one go about making a lime glaze? With cherries and the glaze it really would be snowball cake. I am going to make one for Boxing Day!!

The Caked Crusader said...

Hi Jennifer

To make a lime glaze I would place 75-100g of icing sugar in a bowl then add lime juice, a teaspoon at a time, until you have a thick but still a bit runny glaze. Spoon it over the cake and let it run down the sides.
If you've made the glaze too runny and it looks like it will all run off, pop the cake in the fridge for 10 minutes and that will speed up the setting of the glaze
Happy christmas!

malcolm Nicholls said...

To me this is a very unusual way of a mix for cake but I did bake one, It looked really good and when cut, perfect texture, tasted great I LOVE THIS CAKE thank you.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely lovely cake made one today in a spring form ring mould baked it for just 45 mins

Unknown said...

Made this cake today. The texture came out lovely and I also had a little sink to the bottom. I also did mine for about 5 mins after the hour. But Al in all very pleased.