Harvey Wallbanger Cake (from scratch)
“The name is Harvey Wallbanger and I can be made!”
– Ad tagline for McKesson Imports, importers of Galliano.
My sweetheart is Italian, and in his family, lamb was the traditional main event for the Christmas meal, preceded by gnocchi and cracked crab. For dessert, his mom would make a Galliano (aka Harvey Wallbanger) cake. Popular in the 70s, this cake was meant to mimic the Harvey Wallbanger cocktail, with orange juice, vodka, and the Italian liqueur Galliano, added to a boxed cake mix. While nowadays we don’t have lamb for our Christmas dinner anymore, we’ve kept the Galliano cake tradition alive and well.
The cake-mix version is a tasty cake, but I’ve been wanting to take it up a notch and make this as a scratch cake for ages. So just in time for the holidays, I’m giving you this version, which I couldn’t be happier with. It’s super moist, a bit boozy, and tastes and smells delightful what with all the herbal notes of the Galliano and the fragrance of the orange.
Who Was Harvey Wallbanger?
There are some pretty good stories behind the memorably-named Harvey Wallbanger cocktail, perhaps the most notable being that it was named after a Manhattan Beach surfer called Tom Harvey and invented by cocktail genius Donato “Duke” Antone in the ’50s. (Inventor of the Rusty Nail and the White Russian.)
What’s more likely is that Harvey Wallbanger was the brainchild of marketer George Bednar for McKesson Imports, the company that handled Galliano imports. He had commercial artist Bill Young create a surfer mascot for the drink in the late ’60s, and by the mid-1970s the Harvey Wallbanger was THE cocktail. Hence its appearance on everything from posters to iron-on transfers, and its presence in box-mix bundt cakes.
Galliano
With the decline in popularity of the Harvey Wallbanger in the ’80s, demand for the Italian liqueur Galliano also diminished. Originally consisting of over 30 herbs and spices including juniper, anise and peppermint, the recipe was changed, and not for the better, resulting in a watered-down, over-vanilla’ed version. Thankfully, there was a return to the “authentic” recipe in the 2000’s, leading to a resurgence in popularity of the cocktails using it, including the Harvey Wallbanger.
The Steps
The herbal notes in Galliano pair beautifully with orange and make this cake smell every bit as good as it tastes. So delicious!
- Whisk flour, cornstarch and kosher salt together.
- Rub orange zest in with the granulated sugar.
- Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
- Add oil and incorporate.
- Add eggs one at a time and fully incorporate each one before adding the next.
- Mix buttermilk, orange juice, Galliano, vodka and vanilla extract.
Reality Bakes
I should know better – whenever I use cooking spray instead of butter or shortening to grease my cake pans, my cake sticks. I was trying to save time and used the spray and guess what? Yup, stuck cake. Even with the sugar dusting.
I prefer olive oil in this cake but canola will do the trick, too. I had some really juicy oranges so I used fresh juice but store-bought orange juice is just fine. And if you’re in love with oranges for holiday bakes, as I am, check out this recipe for orange cardamom madeleines.
I’m giving the recipe for a drizzle glaze but I think a thick glaze is so pretty with this cake, especially at Christmas-time, so I upped the confectioners sugar and piped it on. See the recipe notes for thickening the glaze.
Harvey Wallbanger Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 1/4 cup Galliano
- 1/4 cup vodka
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cups granulated sugar, plus more for dusting the bundt pan
- Zest of one orange
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup olive or canola oil
- 4 large eggs, room temperature
For the Glaze:
- 1 cup confectioners sugar
- 1 tbsp orange juice
- 1 tsp Galliano
- 1 tsp vodka
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 10-cup bundt pan and dust well with granulated sugar.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- Mix together the buttermilk, orange juice, Galliano, vodka and vanilla. Set aside.
- Rub the orange zest into the granulated sugar.
- In a large bowl with a hand mixer, or in a stand mixer, cream the butter, granulated sugar/orange zest mixture, and brown sugar together until fluffy and lighter in color.
- Add the oil and mix to incorporate. Scrape down the bowl.
- Add the eggs one at a time, incorporating each fully before adding the next. Scrape down the bowl. Mixture should be glossy and smooth.
- Add about a third of the dry flour mixture to the bowl and mix well to incorporate.
- Add half the liquid buttermilk mixture to the bowl and mix well. Scrape down the bowl.
- Add another third of the flour mixture and mix well before adding the second half of the liquid mixture. Mix until thoroughly combined.
- Add in the last third of the flour mixture and mix for about a minute to combine.
- Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan and bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes before inverting onto a serving plate.
- Whisk the confectioners sugar, orange juice, Galliano and vodka together to make a glaze and drizzle, spoon or pipe over cooled cake. For a thicker glaze, use more confectioners sugar and for a thinner glaze, use less confectioners sugar and/or more orange juice.* Cake may be covered and stored at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Notes
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