Homemade Raisin Cake with Orange Zest

Raisin Cake

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To keep the raisins from sinking to the bottom of the cake, I soak them, squeeze them out and toss them in flour. The batter is a butter sponge: 200 g each of flour and butter, a cup of sugar, 5 eggs and orange zest. About 30 minutes at 180°C and another 10–15 for a golden crust. I dust raisin cake with powdered sugar — I like a lot of it.

I’ve loved raisin cake since childhood: big and small, round and square, with powdered sugar or glaze. We didn’t bake at home very often, but in the school cafeteria I always bought a little cake and a cocoa, an unbeatable combination. Those small individual cakes had some special irresistible aroma, almost a little piece of happiness. The big ones, shaped like a miniature loaf of bread, were bought for family tea time.

Cakes like this are essentially sweet bread. They can be any shape, although most are rectangular or round with a hole in the middle. They’re usually baked from yeast dough or sponge batter. This kind of cake is also often considered a Christmas treat and is sometimes baked for a wedding feast.

Most often the batter is a sponge-type one. Depending on the ingredients, the cake may stay soft, crumble once completely cool, or be quite dense; everyone’s taste is different. It has to be said that sugar and margarine or butter go into it, so the dessert can be quite high in calories.

This is a rich cake: besides raisins you can add candied fruit, nuts, chocolate or cocoa, and even jam, since a filling is fairly common, as in muffins (see the recipe). Despite their ancient roots, recipes for loaf cakes and little cupcakes have a modern history. An ordinary cake with raisins or candied fruit is made differently depending on the region and local ingredients, but the general principles stay the same.

A traditional raisin cake has a fairly dense crumb; it crumbles after cooling but holds its shape when sliced. It keeps for quite a long time. The finished cakes are often lightly soaked with liqueur or cognac.

The tastiest cake is made from a sponge batter. As a rule, it’s an easy batter, the baking isn’t complicated either, and it all comes together quickly and simply. The batter is a bit stretchy, similar to a cream. It’s simply poured into a buttered pan and baked, rising as it goes. The finished cake cools and is turned out, like a tarte Tatin, then topped with sugar glaze, chocolate or powdered sugar. Thanks to my daughter Yulia for her help and support!

Homemade raisin cake made from a sponge batter. A simple step-by-step photo recipe for a delicious, fragrant cake for evening tea.

Ingredients

4 servings

  • All-purpose flour 200 g + 0.5 tsp for the raisins
  • Butter 200 g + for the pan
  • Sugar 1 cup (180 g)
  • Eggs 5
  • Seedless raisins 1 cup (over 100 g)
  • Baking powder 0.5 packet (5 g)
  • Vanilla or vanilla sugar to taste
  • Orange zest from 1 orange
  • Rum, cognac or Cointreau optional
  • Powdered sugar for dusting

Step-by-step recipe

Sponge batter

The sponge batter we’ll bake the cake from comes together very quickly.

  1. Take the butter out of the fridge in advance so it softens, and the eggs too: they shouldn’t be cold. As soon as you start on the batter, soak the raisins in boiling water; you can add rum, cognac or Cointreau.

    At first glance it may seem like a lot of raisins. But the cake should be packed with sweet seedless dried grapes. A full cup of raisins is over 100 g; you can use a mix of dark and golden raisins.

  2. In a large bowl or mixer bowl, combine the sugar, butter, vanilla or vanilla sugar and one egg. Using a mixer with dough hooks on low speed, mix everything together. Keep mixing, adding two more eggs one at a time and then two egg yolks. The mixture should be smooth.

    Main batter ingredients.

  3. Sift the flour and mix it with the baking powder, half a packet. Add the flour mixture to the bowl and mix the sponge batter thoroughly. Cake batter should be as smooth as possible. Its consistency is like very thick honey: it should barely flow and look like custard. If it’s runnier, add a little more flour.

    Adding flour to the batter.

Raisins and the pan

  1. Lightly squeeze the soaked raisins to get rid of as much water as possible and transfer them to a small bowl. Sprinkle the raisins with 0.5 tsp of flour (200 g) and stir: this way they combine better with the batter and are less likely to sink to the bottom of the pan during baking. Add the grated zest of one orange and the raisins to the batter and fold them in with an ordinary wooden or silicone spatula.

    Batter with raisins.

  2. Prepare the baking pan. It can be a metal or silicone pan of any shape. We chose a round metal pan with a raised center tube, which gives a round cake with a hole in the middle. Grease the pan generously with butter.

    By the way, before pouring in the batter you can line the pan with parchment paper; it peels off the finished cake easily.

  3. Using a spoon, carefully pour the batter into the pan, filling it a bit more than halfway: the batter will rise during baking.

    Cake pan.

Baking

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Put the pan of batter in the oven. Usually the cake takes about 30 minutes, and that’s enough. But to brown the top you can add 10–15 minutes. The batter will definitely be cooked through, so go by the color of the top.

    Baking the cake.

  2. Take the pan out of the oven and let the cake cool completely. Turn the pan over onto a board, the table or a large flat plate. Ideally the cake will drop out of the pan. You can help it release by tapping. Usually there are no problems.

    The side that was browning ends up on the bottom, and the baked, darker layer becomes the top. The top will be golden, closer to brown, and slightly rough. If the cake didn’t release cleanly, there may be some damage on the surface; that’s normal.

    Cake with powdered sugar.

Serving

  1. Glaze the cake or dust it with powdered sugar; I like a lot of it. It hides any damage beautifully, just as glaze hides the hole for the cream in éclairs.

    Raisin cake

    Cut the cake into wedges with a very sharp knife to avoid too much crumbling, and serve on a board or plate with tea or cocoa, whichever you prefer.

    The warm cake is quite soft. Once cool, it becomes dense and crumbly.

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Calories and macros

880 kcal

Serving ≈ 210 g

  • Protein14 g6% of kcal
  • Fat47 g48% of kcal
  • Carbs101 g46% of kcal

100 g426 kcalProtein 6.9 gFat 22.7 gCarbs 49 g

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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To Get It Right

How much is a cup

The raisin cake recipe uses a 200 ml cup: that’s about 180 g of sugar and over 100 g of raisins. If your cup is bigger, the cake will be too sweet, so it’s better to weigh the sugar.

If the cake cracks and isn’t cooked through

Every oven is different, and for the cake to bake through, you need to get used to yours. Let the oven preheat properly. If the top starts to split while the middle is still raw, readers turn it down to 170°C and bake longer.

Chocolate cake

Add cocoa to a chocolate cake a little at a time: off the top of my head, 1 tbsp of cocoa (7 g) powder per cup of flour may even be too much. I’ve never liked chocolate or cocoa since childhood, so go by your own taste.

Instead of raisins or with them

Besides raisins, you can add candied fruit, nuts or chocolate to the cake. To keep them from sinking to the bottom, toss them in flour, just like the raisins.

Soaking and storage

A traditional cake is often lightly soaked with liqueur or cognac. It keeps well: in a bag or under plastic wrap at room temperature for 3–4 days.

Have your own trick for this recipe?

Questions and answers

How long do you bake a raisin cake?

About 30 minutes at 180°C, plus another 10–15 minutes to brown the top; in a ring pan, readers get 45 minutes. Check for doneness with a long wooden skewer or toothpick: poke the cake, and it should come out dry.

Can you bake the cake in a silicone pan?

Yes, the pan can be metal or silicone, any shape. This batter also makes small cupcakes in molds: fill them a bit more than halfway and bake for less time, about 20–25 minutes.

What kind of batter is this, sponge?

Yes, it’s a butter sponge: made with butter, eggs and baking powder. The batter comes out slightly stretchy, like a cream, and is simply poured into the pan.

Can you make the cake with margarine?

Yes, the cake can be made with margarine or butter, in the same amount. Readers also bake it with baking butter.

Is this a classic raisin cake?

Yes, a traditional one: fairly dense, crumbly once cool, but it holds its shape when sliced. Readers say it tastes like the Soviet-era Mayskiy cake.

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