Jules, I think a lot of people will appreciate a base box mix cake. My cake requires a little knowledge of whipping and folding egg whites.

That cake base will accept just about any liqueur. I would stick with fruit base, not any of the creams. This will make a raspberry with Chambord, Cherry with Kirschwasser, apple with Calvados, and any number of flavors.

For any flavor, you will need a fine gourmet preserve i=or jam, and be sure to get a top shelf liqueur. Cheaper liqueurs have more of a potent fake candy flavor and will not give you the best results. Stay away from those rows of cheap flavors.

These finer liqueurs will be in the $20.00 per pint price range and you should get two cakes from each pint.

My next flavors will be peach and blackberry. I already have several Chambord offerings, so I'll probably add it as a flavor option. I know it will be excellent.

Cranberry would make a nice holiday flavor. My gourmet jam supplier has a cranberry jam ifused with cider.

kmstreepey, next to the strawberry, I am sure that Chambord will be the best, but as I just posted, I already have about five Chambord offerings... including a Nuts and Berries cupcake. I can just list the flavor without ever making it because the results will be predictably great.

I love chambord, I really need to start incorporating it into my baking. I don't know why I am just now starting to use alcohol in my cake.

Oh, my strawberry daq cupcakes were my strawberry cake then I brushed liberally with light Jamacian rum when they came out of the oven. I then topped them with a strawberry citrus SMBC (strawberry puree with a touch of lemon extract, a splash of grand marnier, and a few drops of orange extract). I sprinkled with some silver sanding sugar. They ended up quite pretty!

Sometimes I shock myself with the stuff I pull off on the fly. I literally made it up as I went along

what a great thread! Can't wait to try a few of the cakes out

Thank you Susan for sending me the recipe, it sounds so lovely! Did you have pictures of it too on a different site?

How did the tasting go with your client go in the end?

...off to the liquor store now a reason to bake it ummmm... its Friday will do

you know, with everyone on here that is so helpful I am getting more and more brave to make things up myself.

Scp1127, you are very helpful, but I am a little lost as to what you are saying about the alcohol you mentioned. Is that what you are reccommending that I use instead of what it calls for or what? I myself don't drink much at all. in fact when I buy a bottle of wine for Christmas dinner, it takes me a good part of the year to use up the rest of the bottle in my cooking. If someone brings a bottle of wine with them to dinner I have that in addition. I bought a bottle last year and hid it so good from myself(in the fridge) that I had to go buy another bottle to have with Christmas dinner. I just finished that bottle off late summer and still have to use the one I bought for last Christmas dinner. I Will probably still have enough left by Christmas this year to use for drinking. if I buy a liquor for cooking with, the bottle can be with me for quite a long time. WHen I do go to the liquor store to buy for cooking I usually explain what I need it for before they start asking me a lot of questions because I really don't know a lot. I find the small liquor stores to be much more accomadating in that way. And very interested in what I am making with it. SOmetimes they ask me if I can bring the recipe next time I come. The one I used to go to would do that and because they were so nice and helpful and never made me feel dumb that I didn't know muchI would tryreally hard to make sure I took a copy in the next time. Even if that was a year or several months away. anway thanks for any clarification.

you know, with everyone on here that is so helpful I am getting more and more brave to make things up myself.

Scp1127, you are very helpful, but I am a little lost as to what you are saying about the alcohol you mentioned. Is that what you are reccommending that I use instead of what it calls for or what? I myself don't drink much at all. in fact when I buy a bottle of wine for Christmas dinner, it takes me a good part of the year to use up the rest of the bottle in my cooking. If someone brings a bottle of wine with them to dinner I have that in addition. I bought a bottle last year and hid it so good from myself(in the fridge) that I had to go buy another bottle to have with Christmas dinner. I just finished that bottle off late summer and still have to use the one I bought for last Christmas dinner. I Will probably still have enough left by Christmas this year to use for drinking. if I buy a liquor for cooking with, the bottle can be with me for quite a long time. WHen I do go to the liquor store to buy for cooking I usually explain what I need it for before they start asking me a lot of questions because I really don't know a lot. I find the small liquor stores to be much more accomadating in that way. And very interested in what I am making with it. SOmetimes they ask me if I can bring the recipe next time I come. The one I used to go to would do that and because they were so nice and

Jules, you should experiment and then let us all know what comes of it!

I do when I get a chance. Sometimes the money is not there to experiment as much as I would like to. Will keep you posted.

Just a comment for the non-drinkers and very little drinkers. Wine and champagne should always be stored on its side to keep the cork from drying out and any air from getting thru the cork. If it is stored up right the air will dry out the cork, air will get in and turn it to vinegar.
I know that alot of people know that, but in case there are some that don't.

Jules, the Moscato d'Asti is the "champagne" and is used in the cake. The Fragoli is a liqueur that flavors the syrup and the cake. Both are used in the frosting. To change the flavor, you only need to change the liqueur (in the syrup and the frosting). All else stays the same.

Snarkybaker provided a well-balanced cake. My recipe varies from there. But my recipe can handle any fruit liqueur in any flavor. The contrast of the jam provides an essential depth of flavor. So for any flavor, get a great liqueur and a gourmet jam in the same fruit flavor. Jules, did this help?

I took this thread into the liquor store to get help on the champagne, but the one they suggested was not right. The Moscato d'Asti was right, in my opinion.

From Scratch, I checked Trickling Spring Farms' site and they do add active cultures. Because they sell butter, I assumed it was real. But for anyone in the MD, VA, DC, WV, PA area, they list all of their vendors on their site by zip code.

Well it is real, just not what people think it is

I just hit my local whole foods to get a few wines to try, I thought Moscato d'Asti was a champagne, it's not - it's a dessert wine, for any of you who are looking for it. I don't remember that mentioned. At least, the bottle I just bought was with the dessert wines, not sparkling. I have not opened it yet.

I want to invite all you boozy bakers to post in a thread I just started, I thought it would be fun...

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopicp-7212479.html#7212479

If there's a youtube video of it I can't find one.

But the name of the show is Kid in a Candy Store and the episode was called Brain Freeze....her bakery/Gelato/bar is Sugarland in Chapel Hill, NC.

Maybe somebody will have better luck at finding it than I had.

I just found Sugarland's blog on her website (sugarlandchapelhill . com / blog) (obviously, remove the spaces!) I haven't read through it yet, but I'm a cake blog junkie, so I will sometime soon!

I forgot to mention which berand I used. It was so smooth and I'm sure contributed to the success. No bitterness and not too sweet. It was Bella Bolle. I got it at Walmart for about $8.00.

I looked for moscato based on snarky's suggestion.

Kmstreepey: Go for it, but please write down what you did and let us know how it all turns out. maybe even a pic. As I said, I had not tried it out either. I just wanted to send you something that might help.

I will, Jules! I was going to try to bake it today, but just got word that guests are coming this afternoon. So, the recipe will have to wait for a couple of days...

scp1127, yes it was most helpful and I am asking you if you would pm me your recipe so that I might have it. I copied the one down on this forum, but I would love to have yours too. God bless you.

it was also most helpful to have that other bit of information in the forum about the bottles being stored on their sides. other than the top shelf in my fridge that is the only way that I can store them. BUt since I know I will take the one from my top shelf and lay it on it's side. Thank you so much for your help. I do not remember which one of you it was. I had my mind on what I wanted to ask scp, that I forgot to notice. please forgive.

Renee: I have one more question on the wine bottles being on their sides. That did mean after they were opened once right? My bottle that was standing up had never been opened and had a wrapper around and over the cork. That is the one that I had hidden from myself and I did not even realize that I had not opened it yet.

No, any corked beverage should be stored on it's side. Think about wine racks and such, all have the bottles sideways. But for your purposes, whatever you buy will probably be used right away so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Once opened, you can store it right side up, but wine does not last for more then a few days open, some wines mature then go over within 24 hours, tasting like vinegar and becoming really sour. I only open my nice wine ($80+) if I am sure it will get drank. If I'm not sure I'll open the cheap stuff, and whatever does not get drank that evening gets dumped. We have a chain in CA called BevMo that's a big liquor store, they have these sales, buy one get one for $.05 so I try and go stock up a healthy mix of good/cheap. Best. Sale. ever.

OH! I have more to report in my experiments - I got a few options yesterday to try and see what tastes the best. I got an orange muscat, and although I had a nice little glass while waiting for my stuff to bake, I did not like the flavor in the cake, at least not out of the oven. I have a few cuppies in the freezer to see how the flavor develops.

Have you ever seen the Sofia Coppola new sparkling wine in a can? I had it before, but decided to pick some up also for this experiment. So far, it's the best tasting! Cans run about $3 each. It was really tasty right out of the oven and I have some in the freezer, we'll see how tasty they are today. It might be my winner based on flavor, cost and minimizing waist since I can open only as many cans as I need.

fromscratch: I don't use my alcohol right away. Even my wine, but for some reason it has not turned. Even my wines have stayed good. Even if I take a long time to use them. Trying to get through all my emails today and there were a lot.

Jules, I thought I sent that to you. I'll do it now.

OK, no joke, I just went to BevMo last night and spent almost $300 buying various boozes and liquors, including all the liquor to make both the regular champagne, the mimosa, and strawberry versions of this cake. I am adding all three to my menu as soon as I am able to nail the recipes.

Thanks Susan for starting this thread!!!

FromScratch, I pm'd you before I read this. I have this habit of going in the liquor stores and comparing what they have in each flavor. Except for underage drinkers, I'm sure I'm the only one who "shops" in these stores. Oh well, now they all know me. They ask me what I'm making. I probably buy one new flavor a week, but that's $20 to $40 per bottle.

Just thought I'd let you know how I got on. I used the Moscato d'Asti, I left it out open over night and shook it a few times with a wine stopper in it, when I poured it out there was no fizz. I had a few bubbles on the top layer. My buttercream recipe is quite large so I used double the amount of the champagne reduction and about 7/8 tbsps of the fragoli. I took it into work last night and it was a hit! Everyone loved it! They said the buttercream was amazing and they could really taste the champagne. The balance is great, neither flavour overpowers the other.

I made cupcakes with some left over batter, they didn't work. The outer edge (the part which bakes next to the liner) was tough and overcooked but the top and inside was cooked perfectly. I just don't think it's a recipe which is suitable for cuppies.

I'll update too. I couldn't find a premium peach liqueur, so I settled for Dekuyper Schnapps. The taste (sip) is really peachy, but slightly sweet. Not good for mixing with the syrup. My plan is to use slightly less in the syrup and sub with some premium extract. I'll do my usual reduction for the IMBC.

Lisa, thanks for the cupcake update. I never like meringue batters in cupcakes. They shrink. And you still had a few bubbles with the flat asti?