Rum raisin cake..

 

Are you feeling the festive vibe? I was really not in the mood for Christmas. For me Christmas is more than a religious festival, it's about having fun with your family and friends, cherishing the beautiful winter days and enjoying the decked up City of Joy. It's also about decorating the house, arranging parties, going out, buying gifts, planning to surprise my daughter and baking loads of delicious cakes and breads for my friends and family. Unfortunately with all these restrictions due to Covid19 the usual excitement is missing and I was feeling less enthusiastic. But when I saw all those images of Christmas cakes and cookies on my Instagram feed, I felt the happy festive vibe and decided to bake a cake, a boozy flavourful Rum Raisin cake with orange glaze.

For this Rum Raisin cake you need to prepare at least a day prior to baking. As the raisins get the flavour from the rum, it needs to soak for at least 24 hours. To bring the zesty orange flavour I added orange peels to the raisin and rum mixture. Make sure to get rid of any white part from the orange peel, or else it will taste bitter.

I used my electric mixer to prepare the batter for the Rum Raisin Cake. You can use either a stand mixer or an electric mixer. I advise grinding the sugar before mixing, this will make the mixing process easier and faster. I have used a bundt pan to bake this cake, you can use a 10 inch round or square baking tin.

Ingredients to make the Rum Raisin Cake:

• Butter: 100 gm
• Brown sugar: 1 cup
• Eggs: 4
• Vanilla extract: 1 tsp
• Orange juice: 1/4 cup
• Raisins soaked in rum: 1 cup
• Flour: 1and 1/2 cup
• Baking powder: 1 tsp

For the glaze:

• Orange zest: 2-3 tbsp
• Confectionery sugar: 4-5 tbsp
• Water: 1-2 tsp
• Rum: 1 tsp

To make the rum soaked raisin:

• Golden raisins: 1 cup
• Cinnamon powder: 1 tsp
• Rum: 1/4 cup
• Orange zest: 1-2 tbsp

 Notes:
*I have used salted butter so I didn’t add any extra salt, but if you are using unsalted butter then add a teaspoon of salt to the batter.
*I have used brown sugar, but this can be done using white sugar as well.
*Instead of using golden raisins you can use dark raisins or sultanas.

Steps of making Rum Raisin Cake:

1. A day prior to baking, soak the raisins in rum along with the cinnamon powder and orange zest, and keep it in an air tight container for at least 24 hours. You can do this weeks before and store the container in the refrigerator.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 350 F or 175 C.
3. Grease the baking tin with butter or oil and dust generously with flour
4. In a large mixing bowl add butter (at room temperature) and brown sugar, Cream the butter and sugar well. Scrape the sides of the bowl and cream the mixture well.
5. Add one egg at a time and beat the mixture well. Scrape the sides of the bowl in between.
6. Add vanilla extract, and mix well.
7. Take a large mixing bowl, and mix, flour and baking powder. Sieve the flour mixture and add gradually (1/3 cup at a time) to the wet mixture. Gently mix the flour with a ladle. Add the orange juice in between adding the flour. Keep mixing till 1/3 cup flour is left.
8. Drain any excess liquid from the rum raisin mix. Add the liquid to the batter and mix. Mix the left over 1/3 cup flour with raisins and add the raisins to the batter, gently fold the batter with a spatula.
9. Pour the batter in a prepared baking pan and bake for 25-30 mins or till a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
10. Take out the cake from the oven and let it cool down for 10mins. Take out the cake from the tin and drizzle the cake with orange glaze.

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