The Great Spirits Baking Company: Beckoning You With Spirit-Infused Cakes

CAPSULE REPORT: As pre-teens, when one might have thought us too young to appreciate it, we were enamored of the rum cake made by an old Italian baker. The cake was fragrant and moist from the rum syrup in which it had been soaked. A favorite of our mother, it would be ordered for holidays and special occasions. Our family enjoyed it for years, until the inevitable day that the baker from the Old Country retired, and the cake was no more. Styles had changed; the town was into fancy French patisserie. Thick buttercream and piped flourishes trumped alcohol-soaked pound cake.

In the decades since, we have had other spirits-soaked cakes, most not worth a second bite. Some, like the ones from the Bahamas Rum Cake Factory, were a passable fix for what we remembered from times past. Even the ones on restaurant menus disappointed as cloying or too alcoholic. Finally, we happened upon the spot-on mini bundt cakes from The Great Spirits Baking Company, and we are happy again. They are noteworthy for top ingredients (Pyrat XO Reserve Rum, Patrón XO Café Tequila Coffee Liqueur, Patrón Citrónge Extra Fine Orange Liqueur, Callebaut chocolate) and small-batch production. These factors, plus great recipes turn out memorable chocolate and orange cakes. They are irresistible and sumptuous without being rich. (We’ll leave that word for those cakes laden with buttercream.)

With Valentine’s Day close upon us, a sampler trio is an excellent choice for gentlemen who don’t fancy a box of fancy chocolate. It’s a no-fuss dessert for two (just add whipped cream, and maybe a pairing of Patrón and Pyrat). Read the full review below.

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INDEX OF REVIEW

Click on the black links to visit other pages.

• Page 1: Capsule Report
• Page 1: Introduction To The Great
  Spirits Baking Company
• Page 2: Varieties Of Spirits-Infused
  Cakes
• Page 2: Serving Suggestions
• Page 2: Buy Rum Cake, Tequila
  Cake & Orange Liqueur Cake Online

MORE TO DISCOVER

• Cake Glossary: The Different Types Of Cakes
• THE NIBBLE’s Cakes Section
• Other “Top Pick Of The Week” Cakes
• PRODUCT DISCOVERY #2: Silver Creek
  Chicken & Beef Jerky Snacks
  Fifty calorie tasty strips of protein, better for you
  than most snacks you might grab.
• RECIPE: Beet & Goat Cheese “Ravioli”
  Not pasta, but beets and goat cheese. You can
  cut the beets with heart-shaped cookie cutters
  for Valentine’s Day.

Introduction To The Great Spirits Baking Company

The Great Spirits Baking Company is a relatively new specialty food company that recognized a gap in the marketplace. There’s a thriving business worldwide in rum cakes, but try to find one infused with premium-brand spirits. Bob Dow and Lynne Berentson, career marketing executives, felt that fine retailers, specialty food stores and other luxury venues would bite at the opportunity to offer an upscale rum cake to their customers...and, while they were at it, why not branch out beyond rum cake and infuse cakes with other premium spirits, as well?

And they did!

The first three cakes are scrumptious, and so much better than any spirits-infused cakes we’ve encountered, either packaged or in bakeries or restaurants. We hope they’ll be a huge success, because as we enjoy each forkful of the premium cakes, and give them as gifts, a portion of sales is donated to Share Our Strength, a national hunger relief organization that assists hungry children.

Orange and almonds are a delectable combination, showered with Patrón Citrónge Extra Fine Orange Liqueur.