Liqueur Cakes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 4 loaf pans.

Split open vanilla bean and scrape seeds into cream. Drop pod into cream and heat until scalding. Let cool.

Whisk together the eggs, sugar and salt until well blended.

Sift the flour and baking powder together. Whisk the sifted dry ingredients into the egg/sugar mixture just until blended. Remove (and discard) the vanilla bean pod from the cream, and whisk cream into the batter.

Gently mix in the melted butter, pour batter into the prepared loaf pans and bake for 50-60 minutes or until golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean.

While cake is baking, prepare syrup by combining sugar, water and corn syrup in a heavy saucepan. Stir mixture over medium-high heat until it comes to a simmer. Continue to heat (without further stirring or your finished product will have sugar crystals!) until mixture comes to a full boil.

Cover (also important to avoid those nasty sugar crystals) and continue to boil until all sugar is dissolved and liquid is clear, about a minute. Remove from heat and let cool for about 5 minutes. Stir in liqueur.

After removing cakes from the oven, allow them to cool in pan for about 5 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the pan and turn cakes out, then immediately return cakes to pans.

Use a thin wooden skewer to poke numerous holes into the cake, about 1 inch apart. The holes should go all the way from the top to the bottom of the cake. Pour 1/4 syrup mixture over each cake and, if desired, sprinkle with optional toppings.

Let cool until the cakes have absorbed the syrup. Remove from pans.

NOTE: If giving these cakes as gifts, use disposable aluminum foil loaf pans and give the cake in the pan.