Worth the Wait

Removing the cover from the cake tin, I was assaulted, as I had been each Sunday for the past four weeks, with the smell of bourbon. A deep, smoky scent reflecting the charred oak barrels the whisky had matured in. And behind it the sharp prick of cinnamon and nutmeg, those familiar holiday smells.

The cake resists and then surrenders to my large chef’s blade. Heavy and dense, packed with raisins and nuts, a poorer blade would only have been useful for hacking at it. A serious cake, it deserves a serious knife.

A thin slice comes free. Moist, almost damp from the last dose of bourbon a week before, the wait is over and I eat a bite. Soft, mushy raisins. Woody nuts. Bread-like crumb. Bourbon and sugar and spice cascade across my tongue and flood my sinuses. It’s almost too much, but nothing less would have been worth the long wait.

It’s Christmas.
(Recipe is here.)

Technorati: Food | photo | bourbon cake | holiday | christmas

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