Little Baby Cakes

 The occasions to make a cake, and I mean a full blown cake... the kind you spend half or more of your day on in order for it to be just as perfect as it can be with layers of cake, frosting, sometimes fillings, and icing decoration... those occasions don't come around too often. At least not as often as I would like. I had the itch to dive into one of these cake projects the other day, but unfortunately unless I wanted to eat nearly and entire cake by myself and have to be that friend that shoves desserts in your face (not always bad thing), I decided to go little with this Raisin and Pecan Bourbon Cake.

I cannot ice cakes to save my life, so this was my little project to change that. Some of the piping on the main cake is a little lopsided, but hey, I didn't do so bad now, did I?

Raisin and Pecan Bourbon Cake
*This is a small batch recipe, but you can double it for close to a standard size

Cake:
1/2 c + 2 tbsp flour
1/4 c + 2 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp + 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 - 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs, separated
5 tbsp water
2 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp cream of tartar

Preheat the oven to 325º F

- In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon
- In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks, water, oil, and vanilla
- Whisk the 1/3 of the flour mixture into the egg yolk mixture at a time until well combined (you may want to sift it first to avoid clumps from the brown sugar)
- In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until they form soft peaks
- Gently fold the egg whites into the batter
- Pour the batter into 3 inch diameter cake pans or a similar size, considering you will have some extra batter (I made mini cupcakes)
- Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean, then let cakes cool

Bourbon Soaking Syrup:
1/4 c water
1/4 c sugar
2 tbsp bourbon (rum works well too)

- In a saucepan, bring the water and sugar to a simmer until the sugar dissolves and the consistency has thickened, about 10-15 minutes
- Let the syrup cool down until it is just a little warm still, then add the bourbon

-While the cakes are in their pans (or cupcake cups), poke holes on the surface and spoon or brush the soaking syrup on top, making sure there is enough to soak through. Let soak for at least an hour, adding more syrup if necessary

Icing:
2 c powdered sugar
1/2 c cream cheese (I only had pumpkin cream cheese lying around, so I used that... delicious!)
1 tbsp butter or earth balance
1/2 tsp vanilla

- Combine ingredients into a bowl and beat until there are no bumps
- After smoothing the cake with a knife to create a flat surface, spread a medium layer if icing on one cake, then layer the other cake on top and ice the top and sides using a flat surfaced knife
- Decorate however you'd like and enjoy!

doesn't it look like a sunflower?