Irish Cream Pound Cake

Today, I made a pound cake. And it was delicious. I have the husband stamp of approval. Plus, I am extremely proud of myself for not over-baking it for once and drying it out. Woo-hoo!

The pound cake I made is flavored with Irish cream extract (non-alcoholic). This is one if the extracts I bought a while ago from Spicebarn.com. (Let me tell you, their stuff really comes in handy when you want to change the flavors of things!! I love having some of their "different" extracts in the house!)

My recipe was actually inspired by this Almond Pound Cake recipe that came in a free issue of Family Circle magazine, the July issue. Don't get me wrong - the almond pound cake looked delicious, but I decided to just use different flavoring. Plus, I wasn't sure if I HAD almond extract in the house!!

Setting up the batter was pretty easy, took about 20 minutes, as stated. Well, maybe a little longer for me because I didn't take any butter out to soften first, and I had to wait to do that after I decided to bake. But if you plan ahead, well, 20 minutes and you are good.

I only made half the recipe (but I am going to post the full version), so I baked it for 40 minutes instead of an hour and it was just fine.

The icing added a delicious extra touch of an Irish cream taste and was also very easy to make. The original recipe had toasted almonds topping the icing but I didn't do that - I used sugar pearls. So check out the original recipe if you want to see the garnish.

This cake is perfect for summer BBQ's or picnics!!

Ingredients: (this is using Irish Cream extract, either click the link above or just substitute almond or anything else you want instead).

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon Irish cream extract

For Icing:
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon Irish Cream extract
sugar pearls to scatter on top

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Cake:

In medium-size bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer until smooth. Add sugar and beat until light-colored, about 2 minutes.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. On low speed, beat in half the flour mixture.

Scrape down side of bowl and beat in milk. Add remaining flour mixture and the almond extract and beat until smooth. Spread into prepared pan.

Bake cake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour, 5 minutes or until crowned and set. Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes, then invert to remove and cool upright on rack.


Topping:

In medium-size bowl, combine confectioners' sugar, 4 teaspoons water and the Irish cream. Whisk until smooth.

Spread over cooled cake and top with sugar pearls.

Let icing dry at least 15 minutes before slicing.

Creamy Irish Cream Cheesecake!

I've mentioned before that my husband is usually the dessert guy in the house. He bakes the cookies, pies and cakes. But since his shoulder surgery has benched him for a few months, it's been up to me - and I am not the greatest baker!!

So for Yom Kippur, I needed to make two desserts. TWO!!! I needed to make one for dinner Friday at my house and one for Break Fast on Saturday at our family friend's house. The pressure was on.

The following recipe was the one I made for Friday night for my husband and parents. The original recipe is here, and I changed it by using Irish Cream extract instead of vanilla and making mini cheesecakes instead of one big one.

The result was positive! Everyone really enjoyed these little cheesecakes, including my father who made a face when I told him it was Irish Cream. Well, he gobbled 2 of them down in no time. So without further ado, here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

15 chocolate or vanilla wafer cookies, crushed (1/2 cup)
2 packages (8 oz each) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese (Neufchâtel), softened
2/3 cup sugar
3 egg whites or 1/2 cup fat-free egg product
2 teaspoons Irish Cream extract (the extract is alcohol free, you can always use regular Irish Cream in the recipe)
2 cups lowfat vanilla yogurt
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/3 cup fat-free caramel topping
Pecan halves, if desired


Directions:
Heat oven to 300°F.

Put cupcake wrappers in a muffin tin and lightly spray with a cooking spray. Fill the bottom of each wrapper with the crushed wafer crumbs - just a small coating along the bottom.


Beat cream cheese in medium bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth.

Add sugar, egg whites and Irish Cream Extract. Beat on medium speed about 2 minutes or until smooth.

Add yogurt and flour. Beat on low speed until smooth.

Carefully spread batter over cookie crumbs in cupcake wrappers. Bake 1 hour.

Turn off oven; cool in oven 30 minutes with door closed. Remove from oven; cool 15 minutes.


Cover and refrigerate at least 3 hours.

Drizzle caramel topping over cheesecake. Garnish with pecan halves. Store covered in the refrigerator.


Prep Time:20 min
Start to Finish:5 hr 5 min