Recipe Test: Absinthe Cake

David Lebovitz is one of my favorite original food bloggers. Many of the recipes he posts have some charming tidbit about life in France, the people he encounters, the restaurants and cafe culture, and the funny things he's learned through missteps and language fails, both confirming and debunking various stereotypes we have about the French. This is all distilled into his book The Sweet Life in Paris. I bought it before my first trip to Paris as a culture guide as much as a treasure trove of recipes.

I'd kind of forgotten I had it until a recent bookshelf purge. As often happens when I flip through these kinds of books, I'm reminded of why I have it in the first place because my brain lights up with all the possibilities of things I could and should make. The absinthe cake was the first thing I wanted to try, if only because it required a trip to Total Wine where we like to ogle at all the specialty liqueurs that we will never buy.

In fact, we didn't even buy the absinthe, because when it comes to anise-flavored liqueur, we enjoy a cheaper variety of pastis called Prado...so we bought that instead. So, I should confess at the outset, this is not actually an absinthe cake, but a pastis cake. Nevertheless, it's seriously boozy and covered in a sugary crust, brightened with orange zest, studded with crushed anise seeds and utterly decadent for something that looks so plain. (BTW, if you don't like licorice or anise flavors, don't make this cake. Not a problem at this house.)

Gâteau a L'Absinthe (ou Gâteau au Pastis!)
adapted from David Lebovitz

-Makes one 9-inch loaf cake-

For cake:
3/4 tsp. anise seeds, crushed with mortar/pestle or hammered in a Ziploc
1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. almond flour
2 tsps. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. butter, at room temperature
1 c. sugar
2 large eggs, at room temp
1/4 c. whole milk, not super cold
1/4 c. booze (absinthe or pastis)
Zest of one orange

For glaze:
3 T. sugar
1/4 c. booze (absinthe or pastis)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Butter a 9-inch loaf pan, lining the bottom with parchment paper.

2. Whisk together the crushed anise seeds with the flours, baking powder and salt.

3. Cream butter and sugar together in an electric mixer for a few minutes, until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, fully incorporating after each addition.

4. Combine the milk and the booze, along with the orange zest.

5. Stir half the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, then add the milk and booze. With the mixer on low, stir the remaining dry ingredients until just incorporated.

6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center emerges clean.

7. Remove cake from the oven and let cool in the pan for 30 minutes.

8. With a long toothpick or skewer, poke 50 holes into the cake. Combine sugar and booze for the glaze in a small bowl, but don't let the sugar dissolve.

9. Remove cake from the pan and set it on a cooling rack over a baking sheet. Baste the cake with the glaze on the top and sides until the glaze is all used up.