Harvey Wallbanger Cake from scratch
Who knew there was such a crying need for this? I just got this email: “I’m writing to ask if you know of any recipes for Amaretto cake or Harvey Wallbanger Cake that don’t require a cake mix. I’m a from-scratch baker and I’m looking desperately for one! If you can help, that’d be great!! Thanks, Chavi Samet, Israel. So I promptly googled Harvey Wallbanger scratch cake and found no less then ten plaintive cries for a real, honest-to-Pete cake recipe that didn’t start with a box mix.As luck would have it, I just finished testing the yellow cake recipe for our new Guaranteed Classics recipes (PJ hinted at this in her birthday cake piece last week). Lo and behold, a quick peek told me that it should do the trick for Harvey with no trouble. Off I went.
Here’s the recipe:
Harvey Wallbanger from Scratch
Cake
1 3/4 cups (12 1/4 ounces) sugar
1/2 cup (4 ounces, 1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup (2 ounces) vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 large eggs
3 cups (12 3/4 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
3 tablespoons (1 1/8 ounces) cornstarch
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup (6 ounces) orange juice
1/4 cup (2 ounces) Galliano
1/4 cup (2 ounces) vodka
1 tablespoon orange zest
Glaze
1 cup (4 ounces) confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon orange juice
1 tablespoon Galliano
1 teaspoon vodka
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 9-cup Bundt® pan.
Before we get started, here’s a hint: any cake recipe works best if the butter, liquid and eggs are all at room temperature before they’re combined. Putting cold eggs into soft butter equals a curdled mess. To bring everything to room temperature right out of the frige, place the eggs in a bowl, and cover with the warmest tap water you can run over your hand. Let them sit while you measure out the dry ingredients and you’ll be all set.
You can also do this with sticks of butter, still in their wrappers, in lukewarm water. It really works. Just pat the sticks dry with a paper towel before you unwrap them and put them in the mixing bowl.
In a large mixing bowl, beat together the sugar, butter and salt until fluffy. Beat in the oil, then the vanilla and eggs, one at a time, beating until each egg completely disappears before adding the next one.
This is what the butter, sugar, and oil look like after creaming.
After the third egg joins the party, the mixture looks like this.
Time to measure out the hooch. In a measuring cup, stir together the orange juice, Galliano, vodka, and orange zest. If everything’s cold, warm it for 30 seconds in the microwave. The flour, cornstarch, and baking powder are already whisked together and on standby.
Add 1/3 of the dry ingredient mixture to the mixing bowl, mixing until it disappears. Scrape the mixing bowl.
This sounds tedious, but it’s the difference between a good cake and a streaky could-have-been. Ever get a cake all mixed up, go to pour the batter in the pan, and find a pool of butter and sugar still hanging out on the bottom of the bowl? I thought so. Get out the scraper.
I’m adding a tablespoon of fresh orange zest for a little flavor boost. Now half the liquid goes in. After it’s combined, add another third of the dry, the rest of the wet, mix, scrape, add the last of the dry ingredients and beat until the batter is smooth with one last scrape down for good measure. Now transfer the batter to the prepared pan, and smooth out the top.
The back of a tablespoon works well to smooth out the top of the cake.
Bake the cake for 40 to 45 minutes (don’t let it go too long, or it will get dry). The top will bounce back when you touch it lightly with your finger, and a tester or toothpick inserted into the center will come out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and cool it in its pan for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, use a dull knife or pointed icing spatula to loosen the cake from the edge of the pan.
Teasing the cake away from the ridges in the center is a little “insurance policy” for getting it to release evenly.
Put a plate on top of the pan. Turn everything over and let it sit for a moment.
Pick up the edge of the pan and jiggle it a bit. You’ll feel the cake fall out. Carefully lift the pan straight up off the cake.
Voila. And phew.
For the glaze, whisk the orange juice (I like to use fresh squeezed for this) and the hooch together until smooth. The glaze will seem a little thick, but that’s how it should be.
Drizzle it over the cake while it’s still lukewarm. The heat from the cake will help the glaze travel over the cake and make a nice, smooth finish.
I put this cake out for tasting, and it was pretty funny to hear the comments. A LOT of our coworkers got an instant taste trip down memory lane. “Oh, Harvey Wallbangers, I used to love them! What was in them anyway?”
The cake was a big hit. I hope all of those folks on the lookout for a scratch version of this classic come and find us. In any case, it’s a good excuse to fire up the Sinatra records and stir things up a little bit!
April 5th, 2008 at 8:50 am
Ooh, that would be quite the potent liquid cake with 14 cup vodka; all for a missing “/”!
April 5th, 2008 at 11:12 am
Whoops, Brenda, you caught us - what, you don’t think 14 cups of vodka would make an, uh. interesting cake? thanks, I’ll go in and fix that-
April 5th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
This cake sounds yummy! I love a great bunt cake, and a bunt cake chock full o’liquor never hurts either!
Your kitchen seems to sport a very nicely stocked bar!
April 6th, 2008 at 11:46 am
Actually, this recipe required a special trip to the liquor store. And thanks for fixing my fraction, PJ. Missed that when I proofed (maybe there’s too high a proof!) the recipe.
April 6th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Sounds super! Just the thing our teachers will appreciate at the last day of school party! (unh, that’s AFTER the kids leave, at someone’s house) Is there a place to get the recipe without copying all the photos?
April 7th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Is there a printable version of this recipe somewhere? Checked the KA web-site and didn’t see one.
April 7th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
In the last picture, you seem to be pouring the glaze from some kind of coiled wire thingy. What is that? Is this some clever KA trick?
April 7th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Goodness that looks YUMMY! I have also had succes getting my butter to room temperature by simply slicing it into fairly thin slices while I assemble all the rest of the ingredients.
April 7th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Mmmm…looks yummy!
For those wanting a “printable” version, it’s really easy just to copy the text and paste it into a document…WordPad, Notepad, MS Word, Open Office, whatever…
April 8th, 2008 at 7:48 am
To Nel: The coiled wire thingy is a mini egg whisk. Unfortunately, we don’t carry it any more, but Kuhn Rikon makes one that’s similar and heart shaped, which would be even better for this kind of application. I found the Kuhn Rikon with no trouble by googling mini whisk.
April 8th, 2008 at 9:04 am
The Nigella Lawson whisk would work well too. Is it okay to mention other stores? Amazon.com has the Nigella Lawson and it’s inexpensive…$5.99 when I looked.
April 16th, 2008 at 10:23 am
A mini-whisk! How clever. I don’t think I’ve seen one over here.
Apropos of tools… I was on a bread-baking site that often references KA (breadtopia?) and the guy in the videos uses a dough whisk like the one you sell. He said on his site that it’s called a Danish (I think) dough whisk, but in fact, they come from Poland.
Here I sit in Poland (been here for 16 years), and I’ve never seen one of those before. It doesn’t look like any of the traditional kitchen implements I’ve seen over here. I don’t suppose you know the name of the Polish distributor or anything?
April 18th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
You really do need to put a printable version without all the blow by blow comments for people that are not beginner bakers. Would really like to try this recipe but need a printable recipe without having to copy and paste and then go in and figure out all the jibberish.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Cheryl:
We’ve posted the recipe in our online archive; the link is at the beginning of the blog entry.
June 26th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
i’m from manila. what can i substitute for galliano?
Debbie, Galliano is a liqueur with a distinctly anise (licorice) flavor. It’s 60 proof (30% alcohol). So if you could find anything local with similar flavor/strength, that would be your option. And you could always substitute some anise oil or extract plus 1/4 cup OJ or other fruit juice or water… it’s the licorice flavor, basically, that you’re looking for. - PJH
July 9th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
If I wanted to make this an Amaretto cake, what would I do? Thanks!
My fellow blogger Susan, whose recipe this is, isn’t around this week - she’s getting married! But I’d substitute Amaretto for the Galliano in both cake and glaze; and substitute apple juice for the OJ. Good luck, Jo - PJH
July 31st, 2008 at 2:03 am
Thanks, I have been trying to find the recipe my stepmom used in the 80’s for this cake and this is the one!!! Now I can make a real HW Cake!
September 1st, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Hooray! My bf’s fav cake is the Harvey Wallbanger! I made him the one from the cake mix but I found it too dense. I am making him a from scratch version tonight, because you can never have to much hooch cakes!A couple of tips from my experience:
- I always prefer the from scratch versions of any cake, but I know there are those out there who don’t have the time or patience… SO if you are using the cake mix; since it’s nearly impossible to find an orange flavoured cake mix, you can add 1 pkg of orange koolaid to a yellow or white cake mix and get the same orange-y flavour!
- I used a toothpick to poke some holes in the warm cake before pouring the glaze which allows in to soak into the cake. If you like it boozy like my bf, do this and then add another coat of glaze after the first one sets… you’ll be breathing fire!