I hv been pretty busy with school lately that i haven been baking for eons. I remembered that i used to bake at least thrice a week and sometimes even at strange hours at night despite having work the next day. I could spend the entire day at home or journey home from work googling for recipes on safari, food blog hopping and bookmarking the mouthwatering recipes. But now, i hardly step into the kitchen.

I dont know where my sudden enthusiasm came from, but i decided to bake tonight. Knowing that Johnny loves raisins, i decided to bake a Raisin Butter Cake for him. My raisins still sank to the bottom despite coating them with a table spoon of flour. Anyone knows where problem lies? I guess i'll probably try mixing the raisins with the sifted flour and fold them into the batter together the next time. Some people suggested to soak the raisins in water/any juice or alcohol ( rum/brandy) for a few minutes to plump these raisins up. Please let me know how it goes if anyone attempts this! I only realized that i missed out the milk only when my cake was sitting in the oven. Well, such things didnt happen for the first time. There was once i forgot to add yeast to the bread batter and left it to proof for a good 2-3 hours. My mind crashed when i discovered that the volume of the batter did not double. I managed to somehow salvage it, not entirely though. But it was still edible. Thankfully, the cake still turned out pretty good with the absence of milk. It wasnt dry at all. I guess if you are going for a super moist butter cake, you could substitute the milk with yoghurt.

I made several changes from the original recipe. The original recipe makes double of this. Double of this recipe requires 40 mins. However, when i checked mine (half of original recipe) at 20 mins, it was still uncooked. I suppose butter cakes take a longer time to cook. I once attempted a marble cake and it failed terribly because some parts were undercooked and the liquid batter literally oozed out when i sliced my marble cake into half. In all, my Raisin Butter Cake took about 30-35 mins.

Edited Recipe: ( Original recipe adapted from Rasa Malaysia )

Ingredients: Makes 1 loaf

125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
100g cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
80g castor sugar
2 eggs
4 tsp salt
2 tablespoons fresh milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/4 cup raisins + 1 tablespoon all purpose flour (mix together)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 190°C
2. Lightly grease the pan with some butter.
3. Mix the flour and the baking powder together and sieve. Add in salt and mix well. Set aside.
4. Use an electronic beater to mix butter and sugar until well combined or pale yellow in color. (Note: Sugar has not dissolved yet).
5. Add in the first egg. Beat well after each addition of egg until creamy.
6. Scrape down the sides for even mixing.
7. Add in vanilla essence and mix well.
8. Fold in the flour into the mixture and mix well.
9. Finally, add in the milk and fold in the raisins. Mix well.
10. Pour the mixture into the greased baking pan. Shake it lightly to distribute cake mixture evenly.
11. Bake until golden brown and cooked, about 30-35 minutes. Use a cake tester to test if it’s cooked.
12. Remove it from the oven and let cool on the wire rack for another 5 minutes. Serve warm.