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Eggnog Cake with Hazelnut Buttercream

This festive cake is perfect to make in these last few holiday days! The cake is flavored with real eggnog, spices, as well as all of the holiday staples. To give it an extra boozy punch I like to make a simple bourbon syrup to brush the cakes with, but you can leave it out. For the frosting, we have a buttery and slightly salty hazelnut frosting. It provides an excelent contrast to the sweet cake, and warm bite of the bourbon syrup. Finally, for the topping I like to do some quick and simple sugared cranberries and rosemary, and decorate with a handful of pinecones.
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Prep Time 50 minutes
Cook Time 23 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 45 minutes
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

Sugared Cranberries and Rosemary (optional topping)
  • ½ cup cranberries
  • 4-5 sprigs rosemary (the exact amount doesn't matter, just however much you want for decoration)
  • 2 cups granulated sugar divided
  • 1 cup water
Eggnog Cake
  • 3 ⅔ cup cake flour (spoon and leveled)
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ¾ teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • ¾ teaspoon nutmeg
  • ¼ teaspoon cloves
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 ½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
  • 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
  • 3 eggs +2 egg whites at room temperature
  • 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 ½ cups regular eggnog at room temperature
Bourbon Syrup (optional)
  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • ½ cup water
  • 2 ½ Tablespoons bourbon
  • ½ Tablespoon rum* or more to taste (optional)
Hazelnut Buttercream Frosting
  • 1 ½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter softened to room temperature
  • 4 cups confectioners sugar
  • ⅓ cup heavy cream*
  • 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 Tablespoons hazelnut paste*
  • a pinch of salt

Method
 

First, make the sugared cranberries and rosemary (optional)
  1. In a medium saucepan heat 1 cup of sugar with 1 cup of water over medium heat. Stir often until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and immediately add the rosemary and cranberries to the pot. Let them sit for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure they are being evenly coated in the mixture.
  2. Drain the cranberries and rosemary and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Toss them with the remaining 1 cup of sugar until evenly coated in the sugar (you might have some extra sugar, that's ok!). Spread the sugared cranberries and rosemary out into an even layer and let them sit at room temperature for at least one hour.
Make the cake
  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease three 9 inch round cake pans, line them with parchment paper rounds, and then grease the parchment. We want to make sure this cake doesn't stick.
  2. In a medium bowl whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, salt.
  3. In a large bowl or in the bowl of your stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium-high speed using a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat until fluffy and creamy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the eggs, 2 egg whites, and vanilla. Beat on medium speed, until combined, around 2 minutes it may look a little curdled, but that's to be expected due to the eggs combining with the solids in the butter.
  4. On low speed, mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined. Then, with the mixer still on low, stream in the eggnog. The batter will be thick. Pour/scoop the batter evenly into the prepared pans. A kitchen scale is very useful to get even cakes. Bake the cakes for 20-23 minutes or until they are pulling away from the sides and they bounce back when gently poked. Allow the cakes to cool completely in the pans set on a wire cooling rack.
While the cakes bake and cool, make the bourbon syrup (optional)
  1. In a small sauce pan, cook the sugar and water on medium heat, stirring often. The sugar will dissolve within 1-2 minutes. Once dissolved, remove from the heat and stir in the bourbon, and rum if using. Add more bourbon if you would like a stronger taste. Allow the syrup to cool before adding it to the cakes.
Make the frosting
  1. In a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, using either a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the confectioners sugar, heavy cream, vanilla, hazelnut paste, and salt and beat on low speed for 30 seconds. Then, turn the mixer up to high speed and beat for 2 full minutes. Taste, add more salt if desired. If frosting is too thin, add some more sugar, one Tablespoon at a time. If too thick, add some more cream, one Tablespoon at a time.
Assemble the cake
  1. Remove the cakes from their pans. This next step is optional: use a serrated knife to carefully cut a thin layer off of the tops to create a flat surface. Place one cake on a cake stand. If using the bourbon syrup, brush the top of the cake with it using a pastry brush. The more you add, the more it will taste like bourbon so use to your liking. Spread a blob, about ½ - ⅔ cup, of frosting on top of the cake. Place another cake layer on top and repeat the process, starting with the syrup. Repeat with the third and final cake layer. Spread the remaining frosting on the edges of the cake. An offset spatula makes these steps easier to get even and flat layers. I use a bench scraper and run it along the sides of the cake to get flat sides.
  2. For decoration, I run sugared rosemary along the bottom of the cake and place sugared cranberries, more rosemary, and pine cones on the top. You could also use fun holiday sprinkles, or piping to create anything you want. Its an empty canvas, do whatever you want!
  3. The cake will stay fresh at room temperature for up to 5 days.

Notes

Bourbon Simple Syrup: In the bourbon simple syrup, I sometimes add a touch of rum to give it an extra little punch. You can vary the amounts and types of alcohol to your liking, or just leave it out all together!
Heavy Cream: Heavy cream works best here, but you can also use any other kind of milk, or even dairy free milks. 
Hazelnut Paste: This can be hard to come by, and you probably won't find it in most grocery stores. I got mine on amazon from a brand called Powbab. Its a little on the expensive side, but I promise you its worth it! If you can't get your hands on some, you can just leave it out and have a plain vanilla buttercream.