Spiced Cake

Congratulations Instructables with your 1000th contest! This cake recipe is for you but unfortunately you have to bake the cake yourself :) This cake is a variation of a recipe that is more than 100 years old, my grandmother already baked it, and is very well known in my country. The original recipe is also known as 'the 250 gram recipe’. Very simple, cannot fail, and very easy to remember: just 250 grams of everything. Well almost, only salt is a pinch. And best of all with this old recipe you can make endless variations.

Because we are crazy about spice buns I thought that this spice mix, named ‘Rommelkruid’ in Dutch, would also be tasty in a cake, so this is a new variation. We also like dried fruits so I also added raisins and candied citron. This cake is now a favorite and in high demand.

For the Rommelkruid (this is more than necessary for a cake) *

3 tsp aniseed

3 tsp fennel seed

1.5 tsp allspice

1.5 tsp liquorice

0.5 tsp cloves

0.5 tsp mace

0.5 tsp nutmeg

0.5 tsp white pepper

0.5 tsp black pepper

1.5 tsp cinnamon

0.5 tsp cardamom

1 tsp sandalwood (option)

0.5 tsp garlic powder

Mix all spices and herbs together and store in a glass jar.

* All herbs and spices are ground.

For the cake

* 12g Rommelkruid

* 1 g of salt

* 250 g raisins, candied citron / or other dried fruits (I chose 150 g raisins and 100 g candied citron)

* Some water, rum, or vodka to soak the raisins

* 250 g real butter

* 250 g of sugar

* 250 g sieved self-raising flour

* 250 g egg (5 -medium-eggs of about 50 g)

* some extra flour for the dried fruit

* some butter or Crisco to prepare baking pan

Tools

hand or stand mixer

Spatula

Kitchen scale

Bowls

Knife

Baking tray

Baking paper

Sieve

Spoon

Wash the raisins and soak them in water, rum, vodka or whatever you prefer for an hour or two.

Take the butter and eggs out of the fridge and let them come to room temperature. For another project I cleared out eggs, this egg pulp I use for the cake. Instead of egg by egg I now add sauce spoon by sauce spoon of egg pulp. It is important that all ingredients have the same temperature. Uneven temperature is one of the reasons that a batter can curdle. If this happen, place the bowl with batter in a bowl of warm water and keep stirring until a homogeneous mass is formed again.

Prepare the baking tray, grease it with some butter or Crisco and cover with baking paper.

Weigh all ingredients

Preheat the oven to 160 ° Celsius

Put the butter and sugar in the mixing bowl and mix for 4 minutes. After 4 minutes, add the spice mixture and salt. Mix again for 4 minutes and fold in the butter mixture a few times in between so that everything mixes well

Meanwhile, drain the raisins in a sieve.

Now add an egg and mix until the egg is completely absorbed. Then add the next egg and mix again until it has also been absorbed. Repeat this step until all the eggs are gone. Adding an egg before the other egg isn’t fully absorbed increases the risk of curdling. Stop mixing once the last egg is fully absorbed. The mixer is no longer needed.

Add a spoonful of flour to the drained raisins and also add the candied citron. Stir this so that all fruits are covered with a layer of flour. The flour will prevent the fruits from sinking to the bottom of the cake during baking.

Fold the sieved self-raising flour through the batter by hand. Do this slowly so that the whole batter remains as light as possible. The cake batter is now ready.

Fill the baking tray with about 2 cm of batter and sprinkle about half of the fruit mixture on top. Add about 2 cm of batter again and on top of that the other half of the fruit mixture, close with the last batter.

Push the spatula upright into the batter about every few cm and pull it up again. Continue like this throughout the batter. In this way you pull the fruits through the batter. This will make them sink even less than when you stir the fruit into the batter. Finish by smoothing the batter.

Place the baking tray just below the center of the oven and bake the cake for 60 to 75 minutes. This depends on your oven. In my own current oven it takes 75 minutes, in my previous oven it took 65 minutes. From 60 minutes, check every 5 minutes whether the cake is already done. You can do this by inserting a skewer into the cake. If the skewer comes out dry, the cake is ready. Turn off the oven and the door ajar. Leave the cake in the oven for another 5 minutes and then take it out. Remove it from the tray after 15 min. and let the cake cool down some more.

You now have a delicious spice cake.