Boozy Batter Makes These Cakes

Eggs, sugar, butter, chocolate and lots of rum. And Kahlua. And Guinness beer.

These are ingredients found side-by-side in Julie Peres' Los Angeles kitchen, in addition to whiskey, and varieties of liqueurs used to make her booze-infused cakes.

Combining the ingredients of traditional cakes, like eggs, vanilla and butter, Peres adds one more—a good helping of liquor (eight ounces to be exact).

Her business, Immaculate Confections, specializes in liquor cakes sure to put store-bought cakes to shame.

"I wanted to find something that was unusual," she said. "Something that had a little bit of a gimmick."

Using her grandmother's original rum cake recipe, Peres created multiple flavors of liquor cakes, all featuring a type of alcohol. There's one with Bacardi rum, one with raspberry Chambord liquor and one with bourbon, among others.

And for St. Patrick's Day—a Guinness cake. This one's a dark chocolate cake with Guinness stout, glazed with vanilla bean and Guinness.

"It's such an interesting combination of Guinness stout and dark chocolate," Peres said. "It's really a delicious cake."

After she'd had enough of her days as a celebrity personal assistant, Peres decided to take her grandmother's recipe and run with it.

"That was sort of my starting point for Immaculate Confections," she said.

Now, seven months later, Peres makes liquor cakes, in addition to a variety of "sober desserts," like tarts and brownies. But not surprisingly, it's the liquor cakes that draw people's attention, she said. 

"They're interesting," she said. "Nobody has really done them before."

Every cake has four ounces of liquor in the cake and four ounces in the glaze. A bite of Peres' cakes won't hit a taster like a shot of the liquor inside, rather it's a more "sophisticated" flavor, mixed with others like vanilla, she said.

The Guinness cake tastes a bit lighter: "You don't really get as much of a 'pow' of the liquor flavor as you do with the other ones," Peres said. "The stout hits you as an afterthought. It's a lot more subtle."

Prices for the cakes are $45 with other baked goods about $18-$48.

Cheesecakes at Immaculate Confections are called "the Lady Gaga of desserts," tarts, "the pie's gay cousin," and other treats, "the theater actor."

Cupcakes are not condoned or sold and are called "the Kanye West of desserts." The website explains: "So let us lay cupcakes to rest—buried between MySpace and the Apple-tini."

It might seem difficult to resist both chocolate and liquor, but Peres insists frequent tastings are "not an issue" for her while baking.

"My husband is my official tester," she said, adding she's usually on a "sugar overload."

Peres credits the business to her grandmother, a "really interesting woman."

"I wanted to pay homage to her," she said. "To be funny and creative with the whole line. I'm very happy with the way it turned out."

For more information on prices, delivery, ordering and catering at Immaculate Confections click here.