As I was thinking about what to write for my Mother’s Day blog, I decided to look through my Grandmother’s recipes. I love looking at the tattered, fragile pieces of paper, remembering the recipe, the family gathered for some occasion or just an ordinary day made special with the love that comes along with the food. The recipes are all hand written, many of them just a list of ingredients mostly for baking. I figured this is all Grandma needed if that, it’s in baking that you need the precise measurements. Most of Grandma’s recipes were committed to memory. Each time I try a recipe it’s requires a bit of work for me to figure out the technique to transform the ingredients in the recipe. So as I was looking through the recipes, I found this recipe for raisin cake. I have no idea the origin of the recipe, but what I do know that making the cake for my sister and mother while working on this blog, we not only enjoyed the cake but all the memories that came along with it.
From by the bay , wishing you a Happy Mother’s Day making your own special memories.
Maryann
Raisin Pound Cake
Ingredients
Unsalted butter and unbleached all-purpose flour or baking spray for the tube pan
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus 2 tablespoons
3 teaspoons baking powder
Unsalted butter and unbleached all-purpose flour or baking spray for the tube pan
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus 2 tablespoons
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 pound raisins
1 cup (1/2 pound) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups superfine sugar
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup (1/2 pound) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups superfine sugar
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup whole milk
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon grated orange zest
confectioner’s sugar, to dust on top of cake
confectioner’s sugar, to dust on top of cake
Directions
Thoroughly butter the bottom and sides of a tube cake pan then coat the sides of the pan with flour, shaking out the excess or spray the sides of the pan with a baking spray.
Make the cake: In a saucepan add raisins and water until the raisins are just covered and bring to a boil. Strain raisins, discarding liquid and cool in a bowl. After raisins have cooled, add 2 tablespoons of flour to coat the raisins. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside. In an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually, beating until well blended. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice. Beat in the lemon and orange zest. Alternately, add the flour and milk , then the raisins. Pour batter into the greased tube pan. Place on a baking sheet and bake cake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a tester comes out of the cake clean. Place tube on baking rack until cool. Use a knife to loosen sides and remove outer rim. Loosen cake around the tube. Take a sheet of parchment paper slightly larger then the cake and cut a hole in the middle to place tube through. Flip cake over into the parchment paper carefully. Place on top of cake stand. Put the confectioner’s sugar in a sieve and dust the surface of the cake lightly with it. Serve.
