Boozy Chocolate Bourbon Cake

This boozy chocolate bourbon cake features my favorite easy vegan chocolate cake recipe and a bourbon glaze that is sure to blow your guests’ minds. The perfect way to sneak a little bit of “pep” into an office potluck or afternoon dessert break!

Does anybody else’s friends suspect them of alcoholic tendencies just because they keep a pile of bourbon, rum liqueur, and vodka stashed in their pantry at all times?

For someone who rarely drinks alcohol, I have a weird obsession with booze-soaked desserts. Growing up, we always had a bottle of Kahlua sitting on the cupboard shelf–but for as long as I could remember, nobody ever touched it (drinking was rare in our household), and I eventually decided that it served more of a decorative household function, much like a pretty vase of flowers or a family portrait hanging in a gold-gilt frame over the coffee table.

Then came the day that I became an adult and–apart from discovering that vitamins are hoaxes and that, yes, cereal actually does constitute a legitimate dinnertime meal–I learned that you could make any dessert ten times better with one simple trick available only to those blessed with the privilege of a valid 21+ state ID.

Pour booze all over everything. Lots of it.

The floodgates of booze-dom suddenly rushed open for this non-alcohol imbiber: soon I was making tiramisu, chocolate Guinness cake, golden butter rum cake, and all sorts of sweet concoctions sure to cloud even the clearest mind in the house. And then I made this boozy bourbon chocolate cake last week and it was basically like that moment where the beat drops in a song and the endorphins came rushing in and everything was right in the world and, my friends, this cake tasted so good.

If you’re looking for an explosion of chocolate mixed with a moist-to-the-point-of-falling-apart cake crumb that is also soaked in a perfect, not-too-sweet bourbon glaze, then this is the cake for you. I brought this to a triathlon team meeting recently and every last gorgeous crumb was licked clean from my IKEA Tupperware, so you can pretty much count on it to be an instant (did I mention boozy?) hit. Bonus points if you can eat this with a shot of bourbon neat, though!

(Also, I have no idea if “a shot of bourbon neat” is a thing, but it sounded cool to write, so I wrote it. The end.)

In conclusion: MAKE YOUR OWN HAPPINESS AND MAKE THIS CAKE NOW. You won’t regret it, I promise!

Boozy Chocolate Bourbon Cake

Yield: 9x5-inch cake

This boozy chocolate bourbon cake features my favorite easy vegan chocolate cake recipe and a bourbon glaze that is sure to blow your guests’ minds. The perfect way to sneak a little bit of “pep” into an office potluck or afternoon dessert break!

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Ingredients

For the chocolate cake:

• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup freshly brewed coffee (may sub warm water)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar

For the bourbon sugar glaze:

• 1/2 cup butter or margarine
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup bourbon

Instructions

For the chocolate cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan (or 8-inch cake pan, if you prefer) and set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Add coffee, vanilla, oil, and vinegar. Mix until no lumps remain.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 35-40 minutes if using loaf pan (or 25-30 minutes if using round cake pan), until a toothpick inserted in center of each cake comes out mostly clean, with moist crumbs clinging to it. Allow cake to cool for 5 minutes while preparing your bourbon sugar glaze.

For the bourbon sugar glaze:

1. In a medium saucepan, combine butter, water, and sugar. Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly, to create a thinnish syrup. Remove from heat and immediately stir in Kahlua or rum.
2. Carefully remove cake from pan and transfer onto a plate. Use a chopstick or toothpick to poke holes all over the cake, then slowly brush glaze over every exposed part of the cake, allowing the syrup to seep into every opening. Continue until all glaze is used, or (for an extra moist cake) reserve half of the glaze, flip the cake carefully onto a second plate, poke holes all over the bottom side of the cake, and brush remaining glaze on top until absorbed.
3. Plate, slice, and indulge to your boozy content!