Eating this cake brings me back to my Amma’s flat in 101 Reykjavík, sitting round her little table; I was allowed to have coffee with the cake just like the grownups! It is great all year round not just the holidays.
Ingredients
- ¾ cup butter
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2 large eggs (or 3 small)
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ cup milk
- ½ cup raisins
- ½ teaspoon lemon extract
- 1 teaspoon cardamom extract
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease an 11 inch loaf pan or better yet, line with parchment paper (you’ll wish you did).
Cream the butter sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at time beating well after each . Stir in the milk, lemon and cardamom extracts. Stir in the flour and the baking powder.
Sift a little flour over the raisins then stir them into the batter. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 55 to 60 minutes until knife comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before turning out of the pan onto a cooling rack.
Helpful Tips
I like a lot of cardamom flavoring so sometimes I will increase it. If you can’t find cardamom extract (I get mine in Iceland), Amazon sells the dry powder form and that is perfectly acceptable.
Some recipes don’t use lemon extract, I find it brings a nice balance to the cake. You could also use vanilla extract if desired.
Dredging the raisins in flour will help them not to sink to the bottom of the cake. To prevent that even further I’ve taken to NOT stirring them into the batter but poking them into the batter once it is in the loaf pan, not too far down. That seems to give them a nice even distribution.
This is not a typical moist, cloyingly sweet pound cake. It is drier and crumblier in texture and just sweet enough to make it great coffee cake. It is best eaten the day after preparing it but if eating the same day it must cool completely.