By Jennifer V. Cole
At Highlands Bar and Grill in Birmingham, Alabama, the boozy eggnog is the stuff
of holiday legend throughout the South. Serve it with Pastry Chef Dolester Miles’
bourbon-glazed pound cake for the dessert duo of the season.
“Pound cake goes great with anything,” says Dolester Miles, the soft-spoken and quick-to-laugh pastry chef at Highlands Bar and Grill. Growing up, her mother would always make pound cakes during the holidays, as she preferred the cake’s subtle sweetness to ones with lots of icing. It was the centerpiece of the holiday table because, as Dolester says, “Everybody eats pound cake.” They’d often have eggnog with it. “But it just came from a carton,” she says. “I thought that was the only way to get it. As a child, I had no clue that you could make eggnog.”
At Highlands, where the home-style batched nog, made with fresh farm eggs, is a celebrated holiday staple, Miles adds grated nutmeg to her cake and glosses it with a rich glaze of bourbon, butter, and sugar to play off the flavors in the creamy cocktail. The richness of the eggnog is tempered by the buttery pound cake, resulting in a deceptively simple pairing that truly sparkles all season long.
5 More Nogs to Try
Wherever you are this season, make the trip to one of these bars for an eggnog to remember.
1. Brix & Rye | Greenport, New York
A nog worth the trip to the North Fork of Long Island, from the skilled hands of Evan Bucholz, the former barman from Brooklyn’s acclaimed Fort Defiance bar
2. Rapscallion Neighborhood Bistro | Dallas, Texas
A complex tipple made with Guyanese rum and Falernum (a spiced almond syrup used throughout the Caribbean)
3. Clyde Common | Portland, Oregon
Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s perfect brandy and rum flip, enriched with cream. Don’t miss his tequila and sherry version
4. Brimmer & Heeltap | Seattle, Washington
A sultry combination of tequila, Scotch, and dry sherry that’s aged for five months
5. Faith & Flower | Los Angeles, California
Oaxacan-inspired twist made with mezcal, rum, coffee liqueur, and house-made cinnamon syrup and habanero tincture
Read the whole article in our Holiday 2016 Issue!
I made the Highlands Bourbon-Glazed Pound cake. people said it was a little dry but had wonderful flavor!. I creamed the butter and sugar for 8 minutes then added the eggs one at a time just like the recipe stated. I am wondering if maybe I mixed too long? I alternated the milk and flour and only mixed for about 10 seconds, should I have folded in the flour/milk mix by hand? So, I baked it and when the hour went by the cake was a blond color and had not fully pulled away from the sides of the pan. So I baked it an additional 15 minutes and it was a light brown. Did I overbake? I need assistance, I love baking pound cakes and I want my next one to come out perfect.
Hi Teresa, thank you for reaching out! We don’t judge doneness of a pound cake by it pulling away from the sides of the pan. We always judge it by the wooden pick test- inserting near center. Because pound cakes cook so long, when they pull away from the sides of the pan, the cake is usually a little past its optimal moistness, and then it continues to cook while it cools which can leave you with a dry cake. We personally like to pull our cakes out of the oven when a wooden pick inserted near the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. This ensures that while the cake continues to cook as it cools for a few minutes in the pan (before you turn it out) that it won’t be overbaked or dry. The gooey center of the top of the pound cake is everyone’s favorite part anyway!
If you don’t hear that timer in time, you can always “fix” a dry or overbaked cake with a simple syrup. Boil 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water until the sugar dissolves- add a flavoring or 2 if you like, then poke holes in the cake with a wooden skewer and slowly pour the simple syrup over the cake. The holes in the cake will absorb the sugar mixture and your cake will be extra sweet and moist. We hope this helps!
Can you tell me where I can find the recipe for the eggnog pound cake…please…or can you give it to me…thank you so much…Joan
Hi Joan,
The recipe is for both an Eggnog and a Pound Cake, but not an Eggnog Pound Cake. Here is the link to the Pound Cake recipe: https://www.bakefromscratch.com/bourbon-glazed-pound-cake/ and here is the link to the Eggnog recipe: https://www.bakefromscratch.com/eggnog-cocktail/
Happy Baking!
Do you use bleach or unbleached flour when baking pound cakes
Hey Barbara,
Either one is fine, but we tend to used unbleached flour when testing in our kitchen as it is more natural and preferred by brands like King Arthur (which is what we test with). Hope this helps! Happy Baking.