This Italian Hangover cake recipe uses orange juice and three types of alcohol for an easy and delicious alcohol infused cake!
This Italian hangover cake is such a fun and unique cake, and it’s made even better by the delicious liqueur glaze it is soaked in! I’m Italian and we love our alcohol. We use alcohol and liqueurs in a lot of our dessert recipes – tiramisu, wine biscuits, or this limoncello panna cotta – everything can be made a little better with some alcohol and liqueur flavoring.
But, I had never heard of an Italian hangover cake until I saw people talking about it on Tiktok and Reddit. Yes, an Italian cake I've never heard of has been making the rounds all over social media.
History
Once I started researching, there are a lot of hangover cake recipes floating around. Some have bananas, some use nuts, but the popular recipe on social media is based off a dessert at a pizza restaurant in New York called Defazios. Dave Portnoy reviewed it giving the cake a 9.4 our of 10 which is why it's sometimes called the 9.4 Hangover Cake.
It's supposed to be mind blowing delicious and people rave about it. And even though the actual recipe is a family secret, they list the main liqueurs and flavors of the cake on their website. It is similar to a rum cake, but instead of rum it’s a bundt cake made with orange juice, vodka, Grand Marnier, and Disaronno Amaretto.
Based off these ingredients I decided to make own boozy hangover cake recipe with an extra delicious liqueur glaze.
Ingredients
- Box Cake Mix: This recipe is a box mix hack using yellow box mix.
- Oil: Use a neutral flavored oil such as Canola oil or vegetable oil.
- Liqueurs: This uses brand name liqueurs of Grand Marnier and Disaronno. I haven't tried it with other brands of Amaretto or Orange Liqueurs but I would think it would still give the same flavor profile.
How to Make
Step 1 : Prep
- Preheat oven to 350℉.
- Prepare bundt pan by lightly coat it with softened or melted butter or shortening, being sure to get in all the nooks and crannies. Then, lightly coat with flour. Alternatively, use a baking spray on the pan. Set aside until ready to use.
Step 2: Make Cake
In a large bowl add all cake ingredients and mix for 2-3 minutes until combined. Carefully pour the cake mix into the prepared bundt pan and bake in preheated oven for 45-55 minutes, until you can prick it with a toothpick and it's fully baked through with only crumbs on the toothpick.
Step 3: Make Glaze (optional)
Once the cake is out of the oven, immediately start making the glaze. It only takes a few minutes.
Add butter, sugar, and orange juice to a saucepan and cook over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. Add vodka and cook another minute or two. Once it starts to slightly thicken, stir in the Amaretto and Grand Marnier.
If you want a very strong alcohol flavor, add the liqueurs, stir, and go right to glazing the cake. If you want a more mild flavor, cook the mixture another few minutes. This will cut some of the raw liqueur flavor.
Step 4: Glaze Cake and Enjoy!
Keeping the cake in the bundt pan, pierce the top of the cake all over using a toothpick or fork. (Note – this will become the bottom once the cake is removed from the pan). Piercing the cake helps the glaze soak through.
Once the cake the pierced, pour about 1/3 to 1/2 of the glaze evenly over the cake. You can use a spoon or pastry brush to get the glaze evenly spread on the cake. The, let the cake cool and soak up the glaze for about an hour.
Once the cake has cooled, remove the bundt cake from the pan by placing a large plate or cake stand on top of the bundt pan and carefully flip it over. Remove the pan from the cake by lifting straight up. It should come right off.
The glaze might leak onto the plate but that's totally fine. Then, repeat with poking the cake and drizzling or pouring the glaze on top. Again, spread the glaze evenly so all the cake is covered. Let the glaze soak in and then it’s ready to serve. Optional: You can save some of the glaze to drizzle on each individual piece of cake!
Tips and Tricks
- The glaze is optional but adds a fun boozy kick to the cake.
- Piercing the cake with a fork or toothpick is also optional but can help the cake soak in the glaze.
- Lightly simmering the glaze after adding the alcohol will mellow out the strong liqueur flavor.
- In addition to the glaze, this Italian hangover cake would be delicious topped with cream cheese frosting, lemon frosting, or whipped cream.
Make ahead and storing
This cake can be made up to three days in advance and is actually better after it sits and absorbs the glaze. It can be stored loosely covered at room temperature for up to three days and an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
I personally think it's the perfect make ahead dessert for potlucks, barbecues, and holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter!
Looking for more box mix cake hacks and recipes? Check these out!
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Italian Hangover Cake
Equipment
- Bundt Cake Pan
- pastry brush optional
- Whisk or Hand Held Mixer
- large bowl
INGREDIENTS
Cake
- 1 Box Yellow Cake Mix
- 1 Box Instant Vanilla Pudding (3.4 oz)
- 4 Large Eggs
- ½ cup Neutral Oil such as vegetable or canola
- ½ cup Orange Juice
- ¼ cup Disaronno Amaretto
- ¼ cup Grand Mariner
- 2 tbs Vodka
Glaze
- 1/2 cup Butter (1 stick)
- 1/2 cup Orange Juice
- 1 cup Sugar
- ¼ cup Disaronno Amaretto
- ¼ cup Grand Mariner
- 2 tbs Vodka
- pinch of salt if using unsalted butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉.
- Prepare a 10 or 12 cup bundt pan by lightly coating it with softened or melted butter, then lightly coat with flour. Alternatively, you can use a baking spray on the pan. Set aside until ready to use.
- In a large bowl add all cake ingredients and mix for 2-3 minutes until combined.
- Pour the cake mix into the prepared bundt pan and bake in the preheated oven for 45-55 minutes, until you can prick it with a toothpick and it comes out clean.
- Once the cake is out of the oven, immediately start making the glaze by adding butter, sugar, and orange juice to a saucepan.
- Cook over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. Add vodka and cook another minute or two.
- Once it starts to slightly thicken, stir in the Amaretto and Grand Marnier. If you want a more mellow liqueur flavored glaze, cook out the strong alcohol flavor by simmer another minute or two. This is optional.
- Keeping the cake in the bundt pan, pierce the top of the cake all over using a toothpick or fork. Once the cake the pierced, pour ⅓ to ½ of the glaze evenly over the cake. You can use a spoon or pastry brush to get the glaze evenly spread all over.
- Let the cake cool and soak up the glaze for about for 45 minutes to an hour.
- Once the cake has cooled, remove the bundt cake from the pan by placing a large plate or cake stand on top of the bundt pan and carefully flip it over. Then, remove the pan from the cake. It should come right off. The extra glaze should pool a little bit around the bottom cake.
- Then, repeat with poking the cake and drizzling or pouring the glaze on top. Again, spread the glaze evenly so all the cake is covered. You don’t need to use all the glaze and can reserve some for adding to each individual piece of cake.
- Let the glaze soak into the cake another 15-20 minutes and it’s ready to serve.
- Drizzle extra glaze on each slice if desired. Enjoy!
Notes
- The glaze is optional but adds a fun boozy kick to the cake.
- Piercing the cake with a pierce with a fork or tooth is also optionals but can help the cake soak in the glaze.
- Lightly simmering the glaze after adding the alcohol is optional and will mellow out the strong liqueur flavor.
- This recipe can be made up to three days in advance and can be stored loosely covered at room temperature.
What size box of pudding and is it instant or standard?
Instant Pudding and a 3.4 oz box.
Can’t wait to try this. Do you think a more authentic copy of DeFazio’s version is with or without the glaze?
With the glaze!
This cake is delicious!!! We have tried other Italian hangover cakes and this is the best!!!
so glad you liked it!