It’s 5:00 somewhere! This Brown Sugar Bourbon Pound Cake had been on my “Make Soon!” list for the past 5 years. I’m not sure why it took me so long, but I finally got around to trying it today. Unfortunately, I haven’t actually tasted it….unless you count the tiny pieces that fell off the bottom (okay, they didn’t really fall) when I inverted it. I gave this cake to my friends next door who have promised to report back and maybe bring me a piece.
I weighed ingredients as I went and again, attempted adding metric.
About the flour, I used White Lily, which is different from cake flour and which you can buy here.
It’s definitely worth ordering not only for cakes, but for the best biscuits ever.
Recipe

Brown Sugar Bourbon Pound Cake
Ingredients
- 3 cups all purpose flour or White Lily 380 grams
- 3/4 teaspoon salt 7.5 ml
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 2.5 ml
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 2.5 ml
- 3/4 cup milk 180 ml
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 10 ml
- 4 tablespoons bourbon 60 ml
- 1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar packed (298 grams)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar 99 grams
- 2 sticks cup butter softened (230 grams)
- 5 large eggs
Glaze:
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar 66 grams
- 2 tablespoons orange juice 30 ml
- 2 tablespoons Bourbon whiskey 30 ml
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 C). Spray a 12 cup capacity Bundt pan (or fluted tube pan) with flour-added cooking spray such as Baker’s Joy.
- In one bowl, thoroughly stir together flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.
- In a measuring cup, combine milk, vanilla and Bourbon.
- In a mixing bowl, using high speed of an electric mixer, beat butter and both sugars until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating 30 seconds after each eggs.
- With a mixing spoon or lowest speed of mixer, add flour mixture and milk mixture alternately, beginning and ending with flour. When fully mixed, pour into pan.
- Place on center rack and bake for 60 to 80 minutes. The original recipe recipe said 80 minutes, but I used a dark pan and my cake was done in 60 minutes.
- Cool cake in pan for about 10 minutes, the carefully invert. Mix all glaze ingredients together. Using a pastry brush, brush all over cake.
Anna
Oh, one more thing. The recipe didn’t say to do it and it’s not necessary, but before I inverted the cake I poked some holes in it and drizzled about a tablespoon of straight bourbon over/into the upside down cake.
Anna
Hi T.,
I know what you mean. Why eat a Bourbon cake if you can’t taste the booze? This cake is pretty strong and in a good way.
T. Martin
Looks really good Anna… Does it have a distinct bourbon flavor? I prefer when the flavor is strong. Will have to try my hand at this one later this week as I have some bourbon to use up.
Emiline
I love the beauty of a good-looking bundt cake.
The title of this cake reminds of this blog:
http://fiveoclockshakes.blogspot.com/
Ha ha. Happy New Year!!!
Tracy
Happy new year, Anna!
Your cake looks delicious!
AmyS
I just discovered your site on Friday and I am crazy about it! I made your Can’t Stop cookies yesterday, and everyone (and their friends) loves them. I wanted to thank you for including metric measurements – it makes my baking life alot easier. 🙂
Anna
Sandra, the big screen is awesome. I wonder how long it will take for me to smear it up?
Megan, my next door neighbor/friend is quite used to getting cakes with big chunks taken out. The gift of a whole cake almost made her teary-eyed. Okay, so not teary-eyed, but she was surprised. Then she promised she’d bring me some….but I haven’t heard from her yet and am wondering how long I should wait before calling. Oh, I know…..I am so tacky….
Thanks Lara! Happy New Year to you!
Lara
That looks beautiful…not to mention delicious!
Happy New Year!
megan
Your cake looks wonderful. My problem would be the giving away part. Somehow a cake with a piece missing just don’t look as nice.
Happy New Year!!
Sandra
Love the pictures with the new camera. I have Canon PowerShot SD630 and I love it!! Great little camera with a BIG screen!!
Anna
Claire, you are such a Southern gal 😉
Carole, I think you will have a lot of fun with the White Lily. It’s great in cakes and perfect for biscuits. White Lily has a lot of recipes on their web site, so if you take a recipe from there, just use those measurements (obviously). For recipes calling for all purpose, I usually weigh out 4.5 oz White Lily per 1 cup all purpose called for. Reason being, White Lily weighs a bit less than all purpose. If you don’t have a scale, White Lily says that for every 1 cup all purpose, you should use 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons White Lily.
carole
I just ordered 2 5# bags of White Lily. I have never used it before.
Claire
I use White LIly for everything. It sometimes goes on sale around here for $1 a bag. I pick up several bags when that happens. It really does make a difference in cookies and bisuits.
Anna
Hi Michelle,
Let’s hope so! I have a feeling it is going to be great. It’s an old Good Housekeeping recipe and theirs are usually perfect. Plus, I made it slowly and carefully with room temperature ingredients.
Therese, Happy New Year to You!
I’m too addicted to blogging…and the Internet, frankly. If I stopped blogging, I’d just go cause trouble somewhere else ;). The Bourbon I used is called Woodford Reserve. It’s a reasonably priced award winning whiskey. I actually bought Todd a bottle for Christmas and he’s not thrilled with me for putting it a cake ;).
http://www.woodfordreserve.com/age.aspx
Therese
Hello LOVELY cake!!!
Bourbon….hmmm. Is there a particular brand that you used for this cake? I have the White Lily flour…so I need to get the bourbon. This would be good to take to my New Years shin dig.
This looks good!! No…great!!!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Here’s to you and your blog and to more baking for 2008!! Keep this blog!
I was ready to start a peaceful march to protest if you decided not to blog anymore! Glad that doesn’t have to be done!! WHEW!!
Michelle
Wow. I’m sure that tastes as amazing as it looks!!