Happy Christmas Eve!! If you have time to read this today, I congratulate you for being totally prepared and on top of your game. You can join with me in pondering a most important holiday question. Who named eggnog? I mean, could you come up with a more unappealing sounding drink? Apparently so – according to my sources. When the drink came to America and we started adding rum to it, we could have named it egggrog – since “grog” was the term for rum at the time. Say it with me…grrrroooogggg. Ewww. Suddenly nog doesn’t sound so bad. Also, I’m very thankful that the drink evolved past adding wine or beer to it. Wine? With a creamy egg drink? Gross. Eggnog is one of those things you either love or hate. I’m in the love category. Love it as I do, I still can’t drink that much of it because it’s just so incredibly rich. When I do pour myself a glass, I add Sprite to cut the thickness and give it a little fizzy kick. In years past I’ve thrown away most of my half-gallon because I just can’t drink it all before it’s gone bad. This year, I vowed to find some way to use it up and my search for a noggy recipe led me to this delightful pound cake.
Betty Crocker lends a hand to make this a quick and easy recipe that tastes delicious. However, it does not (as you might expect from the lack of large quantities of butter in the recipe) have the consistency of pound cake. It’s more like a sweetly spiced, eggnog bread. I was mildly disappointed in the texture the first time I made it – probably because what I really wanted as a dense, tastes just like a sweet pound of butter cake. While very yummy, this “cake” just didn’t have that certain stick-to-your-hips quality I was looking for. Then I had an epiphany. I realized that I could slice it and pop it in my toaster. Spread some butter on the golden toasty goodness and voilà. Decadent perfection.
Mmmmmm. Nom, nom, nom. Fantastic. A little crispy on the outside with the richness of butter seeping thru to the sweet golden eggnog center. I toasted up a piece for my daughter and upon first bite she declared “This tastes like SUPER bread!”. Ah, the little joys in life make it all worthwhile.
Bottom line, if you have some eggnog left over after Christmas and want to use it up, this is the way to do it! Plan ahead and make a loaf before New Year’s Eve and then as you stumble into the kitchen for your coffee, you’ll have a little toasty noggy goodness to go along with it.
Eggnog Pound Cake (recipe adapted from Southern Living)
- 1 (16-oz.) package pound cake mix
- 1 1/4 cups eggnog
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 rounded teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 T butter, melted
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Beat all ingredients together at low-speed with an electric mixer until blended. Increase speed to medium, and beat 2 minutes. Pour into a lightly greased 9- x 5-inch loaf pan. Drizzle melted butter over top of batter.
2. Bake at 350° for 55 minutes to one hour or until a long wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pan to wire rack, and cool completely (about 1 hour).
Bakerlady 