Rum & raisin cake

May 29-30, 2021

   

On Michael's birthday this year, Melbourne entered another pandemic lockdown. There were a couple of social arrangements to cancel, but we figured out some good takeaway food and cooking projects across the weekend to compensate (more to come!). I was also ready to bake his pick from Goh and Ottolenghi's Sweet: a rum and raisin cake.

This cake is intended to be baked in a bundt pan. The cookbook shows a decorative cake with the icing in motion, following the neat channels of the cake form. A springform cake tin is a plainer, easier alternative. The cake's preparation isn't complicated, though I had a couple hiccups - the morning was cold, the butter was cold, and my electric beater just wasn't up to the job.

The finished cake had a magnificent texture on the day of baking - crusty at its edge, soft all the way through and just a little fudgy right in the centre, with plenty of rum-soaked raisins scattered throughout. It settled into something firmer and more uniform over subsequent days. I only poured half of the icing over the cake, because the remainder looked likely to just spill onto the plate, and I kept the leftovers in a jar to spoon over one cake slice at a time. The icing has a lovely caramel and rum flavour, but I think I'd be just as happy not bothering with it, since the cake already carries these flavours well itself.

While this cake could certainly be veganised, we've actually got a ready-to-go vegan rum'n'raisin cake recipe on the blog already! Whichever way you bake it, it's a comfort during another locked-down winter.

   

Rum & raisin cake

(from Yotam Ottolenghi & Helen Goh's Sweet)

cake

200g raisins

120mL dark rum

300g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

250g butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing

250g brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

200g sour cream

icing (I recommend halving the recipe, or even omitting it)

60g butter

80g brown sugar

3 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon dark rum

100g icing sugar

A day in advance of baking the cake, mix together the raisins and rum in a shallow plastic container, cover them with a lid, and let them macerate overnight.

Preheat an oven to 190°C. If you have a 23cm bundt tin, grease and flour it. Instead, I used a ~23cm round springform pan, lining it with paper and greasing it.

In a medium-large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and salt.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar with an electric beater. Beat in the vanilla and the eggs. With the beater on a low speed, add in spoonfuls of the flour mixture and sour cream in turns, until everything is well mixed. Mix in the raisins and rum until just mixed through the batter. Pour the cake batter into your tin and smooth over the top. Bake for 50-60 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.

To make the icing, melt the butter in a small saucepan. Stir in the sugar until well-mixed. Add the milk and bring it to a boil. Turn off the heat, whisk in the rum, and let the mixture cool to room temperature. Sift in the icing sugar and whisk until smooth. Gently pour the icing over the top of the cake.