At the time of this posting, a little over half the world has already crossed the threshold into 2021 and I can’t wait to join them in bidding a final adieu and good riddance to 2020. Normally we would be joining friends for a celebratory dinner (the past two years have been variations on a Chinese hotpot feast!) and libations followed by staking out a high spot in Capitol Hill to catch the fireworks display from the Space Needle – but as has been repeated ad nauseum for the last 9 months, this year is anything but normal. So instead, we will be making a simple dinner, catching the ball drop from an eerily empty Times Square across the country, and eating giant slices of this big, boozy cake to welcome the new decade.
I’m not sure I deserve it, but Santa was very good to me this year! My husband bought me the Rolls Royce of kitchen scales, and my stepsister, who is a third-degree gift ninja, sent me a copy of Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh’s Sweet. My little baker heart was very content on Christmas afternoon, camped out in front of the tree with my new cookbook and a mug of eggnog, plotting my next sugar rush.
As Ottolenghi and Goh are based in London, it’s no surprise that the book has more than a few recipes for boozy cakes. The Brits take their dried fruit and spirits seriously: there is even a designated day in November (Stir-up Sunday) to make their Christmas puddings, which benefit from a good long soak in a tipple. Though I’ve never tried my hand at British pud, every Christmas I do usually make a stollen with rum-soaked fruit. This year, for some unknown reason, I made the cardinal mistake of fixing what wasn’t broken, tried two new recipes instead of my old reliable, and was rewarded with four inedible loaves – two raw in the middle, and two dry to the point of no return. I was determined not to let 2020 win on this front (I think we can agree it’s gotten away with far too much already) and found my plan for redemption on page 124 of my new cookbook – a rum and raisin cake with rum caramel icing.
This cake is not a dessert you’d nibble at a fancy New Year’s soiree with a glass of champagne (remember those?). It’s more of a caramelly sweet slab of indulgence with a solid kick from an entire half cup of rum – which makes it entirely appropriate for a sweatpants-attired New Year’s Eve soiree on your couch. And unlike those fancy soiree nibbles, it’s an entire cake, so you can extend the party through the long weekend if you wish. If you made it through 2020 – I think you deserve it. Cheers!
Rum and raisin cake with rum caramel icing
(adapted from Sweet by Yotam Ottolenghi & Helen Goh)
I soaked the raisins for two whole days to give them a chance to get nice and soused, which I highly recommend as the rum in the raisins won’t bake out as much as what is mixed in the batter. I found the caramel drizzle to be a bit extra, as you can see it was a bit thin and pooled in the center – so if you don’t have much of a sweet tooth, I recommend using only half the recipe or doing without entirely.
Ingredients
- 200g raisins
- 120ml spiced rum
- 300g all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 250g unsalted butter, softened
- 240g light brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 200g sour cream
- 60g unsalted butter
- 80g dark brown sugar
- 3 tbsp whole milk
- 1 tbsp spiced rum
- 75g confectioners sugar, sifted
Rum caramel sauce
Directions
- Two days before you make the cake, combine the raisins and rum in a glass bowl or jar. Stir/shake a few times a day.
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter and flour a 9-inch bundt pan.
- Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together 3 times.
- Beat butter with vanilla and brown sugar in the bowl of a mixer with the paddle attachment on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Alternate adding the sour cream and flour, mixing only until no streaks of flour remain. Add raisins and any rum left in the jar or bowl, incorporate with a spatula.
- Spread batter into prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake 50-55 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes before turning out onto a rack to cool completely.
- Melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir in brown sugar until dissolved and mixture is homogenous. Add milk and bring to a boil; remove from heat and stir in rum, allow to cool to room temp. Beat in confectioner’s sugar till no lumps remain, drizzle over cake.
To make the caramel:
