This cake is my very own recipe, fruit of years of perfecting and Olivier’s favourite, so this weekend, this is the one I will be baking for him. The dense filling of raisins and nuts is deeply fulfilling and the sticky, sweet and faintly citric apricot jam on top whispers luxurious indulgence. To be shared with the best dad in the world over warm tea and intimate conversations.
Two nuts and two raisins love cake
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Recipe by: Anne-Laure at Tasty Diaries Busy:30 min, Total prep time: 1h30 min Serves: 8-10 thick slices |
Preheat your oven to 250 degrees C.
Marinate the raisins and sultanas in the rum diluted with water (or water and vanilla extract if not using rum) so that the raisins sit about 1 cm below the surface of the liquid. To accelerate the marinating process (a little trick of my own!), microwave the raisins in their marinade on full power for 10-12 minutes, or until most of the liquid appears to have been absorbed.
Sift the flour and baking powder together.
Soften 200 g of the butter in the microwave on low power and beat with the sugar until the mixture looks creamy and lighter in colour. Add the eggs one by one, mixing slowly.
Add the flour in one go and mix just enough so that the flour longer shows (too much mixing will make the cake tougher and drier).
Chop the walnuts coarsely.
Using a wooden spoon, fold gently into the cake batter the raisins and their marinade, the nuts and the almonds.
Butter the mould and pour the mixture into it.
Place in the oven and immediately reduce the heat to 180 degrees C.
Melt the remaining 10 g of butter. Once a crust forms on top of the cake (about 8-10 minutes into the baking), score it lengthways by running a knife through its middle, and pour the melted butter into the rift you just created. This will allow the cake to raise beautifully without cracking the crust in odd shapes.
Bake the cake for another 50 minutes, checking on it regularly to make sure it does not burn as not all ovens are the same! The cake is ready when a knife or skewer inserted into its centre comes out clean.
After taking the cake out of the oven, allow it to cool down for 10 min. Unmould and cover the top generously with apricot jam.
Eat the cake just warm or cold, cut into thick, rich slices. This cake will keep up to 2 weeks if you store it in the fridge.
This recipe works with a 25 to 28 cm long rectangular cake mould.
Preheat your oven to 250 degrees C.
Marinate the raisins and sultanas in the rum diluted with water (or water and vanilla extract if not using rum) so that the raisins sit about 1 cm below the surface of the liquid. To accelerate the marinating process (a little trick of my own!), microwave the raisins in their marinade on full power for 10-12 minutes, or until most of the liquid appears to have been absorbed.
Sift the flour and baking powder together.
Soften 200 g of the butter in the microwave on low power and beat with the sugar until the mixture looks creamy and lighter in colour. Add the eggs one by one, mixing slowly.
Add the flour in one go and mix just enough so that the flour longer shows (too much mixing will make the cake tougher and drier).
Chop the walnuts coarsely.
Using a wooden spoon, fold gently into the cake batter the raisins and their marinade, the nuts and the almonds.
Butter the mould and pour the mixture into it.
Place in the oven and immediately reduce the heat to 180 degrees C.
Melt the remaining 10 g of butter. Once a crust forms on top of the cake (about 8-10 minutes into the baking), score it lengthways by running a knife through its middle, and pour the melted butter into the rift you just created. This will allow the cake to raise beautifully without cracking the crust in odd shapes.
Bake the cake for another 50 minutes, checking on it regularly to make sure it does not burn as not all ovens are the same! The cake is ready when a knife or skewer inserted into its centre comes out clean.
After taking the cake out of the oven, allow it to cool down for 10 min. Unmould and cover the top generously with apricot jam.
Eat the cake just warm or cold, cut into thick, rich slices. This cake will keep up to 2 weeks if you store it in the fridge.
This cake is also delicious with pecans and hazelnuts. I change the nut mix based on what I have in my cupboard and my mood. You can also get creative with the filling and replace some or all of the raisins with other dry items such as dried apricots or candied cherries. As usual, I tend to replace about 40% of the white flour with wholemeal flour to give the cake a nuttier flavour and increase its nutritional value.
Ingredients
130 g raisins
130 g sultanas
130 g walnuts
130 g sliced almonds
60 ml rum (optional)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract if not using rum
200 g + 10 g butter
300 g flour
150 g sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
100g apricot jam
130 g raisins
130 g sultanas
130 g walnuts
130 g sliced almonds
60 ml rum (optional)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract if not using rum
200 g + 10 g butter
300 g flour
150 g sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
100g apricot jam
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One Comment to “Two nuts and two raisins love cake”
February 18th, 2010 at 12:59 am
[...] to certain types of cakes, particularly those containing a lot of "fillers". My ultra delicious two raisins and two nuts cake, which contains 300 g flour, is a perfect illustration of this principle.Other tricks that help are [...]