Doctored up spice cake, infused with whiskey, topped with walnuts and a whiskey glaze. This Whiskey Walnut Spice Cake is boozy and festive, and as easy as it is pretty.
This is my new favorite cake. It’s as moist as you can find, and it’s drunken. That formula adds up to a great cake, especially for the holidays. Everyone can use a little extra booze in their lives around the holidays.
I love to doctor up cake mix. Sorry if you find that to be baking sacrilege, but I am such a fan of cake mix, and I won’t quit. I think with a few extra ingredients, you can turn a ho-hum, ordinary cake mix into something extraordinary and special.
Spruced up cake mix recipes have so many benefits, besides the short-cut and time-savings, you get to start with a built-in flavor. I used spice cake for this recipe, for example, but I have many a fantastic recipe that starts with lemon or orange or key lime cake mix. You can even use them to make cookies.
My Grandma’s Pistachio Bread starts with cake mix, and it’s been the foundation for a bunch of other great breads and cakes too.
I don’t know why I always get on a tangent about my love for cake mix whenever I share a recipe that includes one.
Anyway, this is my current favorite way to makeover a cake mix: liquor. I only wish I’d shared this sooner.
This cake is unbelievably simple to make, and the ingredients are all really simple too. It doesn’t require a laundry list of weird stuff. The only thing that you might not ordinarily have on hand would be the whiskey. Tell me you have whiskey in your house!! It’s important to our friendship that you are a person who has whiskey on hand.
Just kidding. Truth be told, I kinda hate whiskey to drink, unless it’s Fireball, but I absolutely love to bake with it. Even if you’re not a whiskey person, this cake is still for you.
The whiskey doesn’t smack you in the face, although you will know it’s there. The biting edge isn’t there though, but the flavor remains, and it is *perfect* with spice cake and walnuts. It has a rustic feel, but festive and celebratory and jolly too.
I love everything about the flavors. Spice cake and whiskey and walnuts. And the whiskey butter glaze on top is pure heaven. You can poke a few holes in the cake and pour the glaze over while it’s warm, or wait til it cools, and it is more of an icing. Either way is great.
It’s easy, easy, easy, and it makes a tremendous impression. Don’t skip it for the holidays!
Whiskey Walnut Spice Cake
Ingredients
Whiskey Walnut Spice cake:
- 1 box spice cake mix
- 1 - 3.4 oz. box instant vanilla pudding mix
- 1/2 c. vegetable oil
- 1/2 c. whiskey
- 1/2 c. milk
- 4 eggs
- 1 1/2 c. chopped walnuts divided
Whiskey glaze:
- 4 tbsp. butter melted
- 1/3 c. whiskey
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 4 - 5 c. powdered sugar
Instructions
Whiskey Walnut Spice cake:
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In a large bowl, whisk together cake mix, pudding mix, vegetable oil, whiskey, milk, and eggs.
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Stir in 1 1/4 c. walnuts.
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Pour into a greased 10-cup bundt pan.
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Bake at 325 for 40-50 minutes, or until edges are brown, and a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
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Remove to a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes before inverting onto a serving platter to cool completely.
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Prepare glaze.
Whiskey glaze:
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In a medium bowl, whisk together melted butter, whiskey, vanilla, and 4 cups powdered sugar. Add additional powdered sugar, as needed.
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Drizzle over cooled cake.
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Sprinkle with remaining walnuts.
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Cut and serve.
Helen at the Lazy Gastronome says
December 11, 2016 at 10:09 amWhiskey? Walnuts? Cake? I’m so in!!! Thanks for sharing on the What’s for Dinner link up – Would love to have you give us a comment at the party!
Sarah says
December 11, 2016 at 3:45 pmAbsolutely! I’ll drop by to say hello again. Thank you so much!
Christine says
December 12, 2016 at 11:41 amLoving this recipe! Stopping by from the Create and Crave party.
Sarah says
December 14, 2016 at 8:44 pmThank you so much!
Marilyn Lesniak says
December 13, 2016 at 12:59 pmThank you for sharing your wonderful post at #OverTheMoon. I look forward to what you will share next week! Do something special. Give yourself a standing ovation today! We hope you’ll come back again next Sunday when we open our doors at 6:00 PM EST. Pinned and tweeted!
Rhonda says
December 13, 2016 at 6:40 pmThis will help get the party started! It sounds delicious too. Thanks for sharing on Sunday’s Best.
Sandra Garth says
December 15, 2016 at 2:58 pmOh how I love a boozy cake!
Sarah says
December 16, 2016 at 10:05 pmYessss!!
Monika Dabrowski says
December 16, 2016 at 12:11 pmThis cake sounds so good, great to have with coffee after Christmas dinner!
Angie Rose says
December 16, 2016 at 4:54 pmHello Sarah! This whiskey walnut spice cake looks so good 🙂 Thank you for sharing with us at Dishing It & Digging It!
Sarah says
December 16, 2016 at 10:05 pmThank you so much! Happy holidays!
Caroline Williams says
December 16, 2016 at 8:47 pmI can see why this is your new favorite – it looks and sounds wonderful! Great flavors and moist are always good. Thanks for sharing with us at Fiesta Friday.
Sarah says
December 16, 2016 at 10:07 pmThank you so much, Caroline!
Miz Helen says
December 17, 2016 at 2:35 pmHi Sarah,
Your Whiskey Walnut Spice Cake looks fantastic, we will love it! Hope you have a fantastic weekend and thanks so much for sharing with us at Full Plate Thursday!
Miz Helen
Sarah says
December 17, 2016 at 5:13 pmThank you!! Happy Holidays! 🙂
Linda says
December 17, 2016 at 9:33 pmThis cake is awesome. Thanks for sharing at What’d You Do This Weekend. You’ ll be featured at our next party.
Wishes for tasty dishes,
Linda
Kimm at Reinvented says
December 18, 2016 at 6:35 pmOh my goodness, that cake looks divine! My mouth is seriously watering. 😉 Thanks for linking up to Funtastic Friday!
Julie says
December 18, 2016 at 11:29 pmThis cake looks absolutely amazing!
Sarah says
December 19, 2016 at 8:13 amThank you!
Theresa @DearCreatives says
December 20, 2016 at 12:55 pmLooks yummy! Thanks for sharing at the Inspiration Spotlight party. Shared. Happy Holidays!
Julie timchak says
December 16, 2017 at 6:18 pmHi! I made the spice whisky cake and it came out absolutely perfect
I am not one for scratch baking so I used your recipe.
My husband loved it. We’re going to a party and I would like to make this using chocolate cake mix and chocolate pudding and perhaps choco chips ( the party host lives chocolate)
Do you think this would work?
Thanks for sharing the awesome recipe!
Sarah says
December 16, 2017 at 8:27 pmYES! It would totally work! You can definitely swap out all kinds of flavors with this cake – as long as the basic proportions are the same, that will totally work! I’ve used this same cake recipe for a bunch of different bundts. 🙂 Maybe use Kahlua for the liquor!! That would be SO good! Or Irish whiskey!!
Thank you for your comment – I’m SO glad you liked it!
Melody says
May 27, 2018 at 4:29 pmThis looks so yummy! Do you think it would work as a layer cake?
Sarah says
June 1, 2018 at 10:40 amI think it would! But I have not tried it myself! 🙂
Rhonda C Searcy says
December 7, 2020 at 5:03 pmGoing to make this for my holiday baskets… can it be made, baked and then put in the freezer for a couple of weeks?
Sarah says
December 7, 2020 at 6:38 pmYes! It sure can. I would freeze the cake and glaze separately though for best results. You can freeze the iced cake, but I think it will do best if frozen separately. Assemble when thawed!