Martha Stewart realza su bizcocho de limón con Armagnac, un brandy de Gascuña

Home and lifestyle entrepreneur Martha Stewart shared her recipe for a lemon Armagnac bundt cake on Instagram, frosted with a mixture of butter, sugar, and Armagnac. The post shows a golden, textured bundt cake on a cake stand.

In the caption, Stewart wrote: “The cake, a dense sponge with a lemon and Armagnac aroma, glazed with a mixture of butter, sugar, and Armagnac, was a big hit with a dollop of vanilla whipped cream.” On her blog, she recounted that she made the cake for designer Andy Yu’s birthday luncheon. Chef and restaurateur David Burke, known for his creative use of ingredients, prepared the rest of the menu, which included lobster turnovers, burrata salad, and tuna and salmon tartare.

Alcohol can add flavor and texture to cakes, pies, and other baked goods, and it can also alter the consistency: it can make puff pastry flakier or sponge cake moister. According to Betty Crocker, using alcohol in baking can enhance flavor by binding fat and water.

There are two common ways to incorporate liquor into a dessert: before baking, which usually yields more subtle notes, or afterward, in a glaze or topping, for a more pronounced flavor. Stewart appears to have done both.

It's a common myth that alcohol evaporates completely when cooked, but the reality is more complex. According to Taste of Home, it depends on how the beverage is used. A stew with red wine simmered for hours will have a lower alcohol content than a dessert of flambéed bananas.

Brandy is made from fermented wine or other fruit juices, typically has an alcohol content of between 40 and 50%, and is commonly used in baking, for example in tiramisu and fruit cakes. The one Stewart used is Armagnac, which originates from the French region of Gascony and is called "cognac's lesser-known cousin" by Liquor.com.

Stewart may have improvised the recipe, as his website doesn't have a lemon cake recipe with Armagnac. His glazed lemon cake and lemon bundt cake recipes are similar, but alcohol-free. In a YouTube video, he demonstrates four bundt cake recipes and shares tips such as poking holes in the cake before glazing it so the liquid soaks in better. When adapting a recipe with liqueur, it's best to start small: a simple rule is to use the same amount of liqueur as extract (like vanilla) and choose liqueurs you'd actually enjoy drinking.