Irish Cream Pound Cake (Cold Oven)

With both Irish Cream in the batter and in the caramel sauce on top, this boozy cake is as gorgeous as it is delicious. Drizzled with a buttery Irish cream caramel sauce, this cake is the perfect match for your morning cup of coffee.

📝 Ingredients

• 3 cups (450 g) All-Purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (240 mL) buttermilk (room temperature)
• 1/2 cup (120 mL) Irish Cream liqueur (room temperature)
• 1 1/2 cups (340 g, 3 sticks) butter, (room temperature)
• 1 1/2 cups (300 g) light brown sugar
• 5 large eggs, (room temperature)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup (57 g, 1/2 stick) butter, salted
• 1/4 cup (50 g) granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup (50 g) light brown sugar
• 2 Tablespoons heavy cream
• 2 Tablespoons Irish cream liqueur
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla paste
• *Optional: sea salt flakes

👨‍🍳 Instructions

1. 1--- Make the cake ---
2. 2Prepare a bundt pan by greasing and flouring the sides. Set aside.
3. 3In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt, set aside. In a large liquid measuring cup, combine the buttermilk and Irish cream liqueur, set aside.
4. 4In a large mixing bowl fitted with a beater attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 4-5 minutes on medium speed. Slowly add eggs, one at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl after each addition. Add vanilla and mix to combine.
5. 5Next, alternating the dry and wet ingredients, slowly add flour and liqueur mixtures into the butter mixture, beginning and ending with flour, just until combined. Scrape sides of bowl to ensure the batter is well mixed, but do not overmix. Pour the batter into a greased and floured bundt pan. Tap the bundt pan on the countertop a few times to remove excess air pockets. The batter will be quite thick. Smooth the top with an offset spatula.
6. 6Place the bundt pan into a cold oven and set the bake temperature to 325F/163C. Bake for 60-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let the cake rest in the pan for 15 minutes on a wire rack, then invert the pan onto the wire rack to remove the cake. Let the cake cool to room temperature.
7. 7--- Make the caramel sauce ---
8. 8In a medium saucepan, combine butter, sugars, and creams over medium heat. Bring to a boil for one minute, then stir in the vanilla. Boil one more minute and then remove from heat.
9. 9Let the mixture cool for about 5 minutes before pouring over the cake. As it cools the caramel will continue to thicken.
10. 10Pour evenly over the cooled bundt cake. *Optional: sprinkle the caramel sauce with sea salt flakes for salted caramel.