This Sticky Raisin Cake is perfectly fluffy, moist and filled with warm spices that make it exactly what you need this fall.
You may have heard of a sticky toffee pudding, well this is my version and here I’m using naturally sun dried California Raisins, and cozy spices like cinnamon, ginger and cardamom, and the most dreamy toffee sauce to top it all off!
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California Raisins are a pantry staple in our home, where we use them for cooking, baking and as a delicious snack! They’re a great source of fibre and potassium, and add the perfect caramel like flavour and natural sweetness to this delicious dessert.
Ingredients
Butter – I always use salted butter in my desserts. Why? The salt adds a wonderful background note that emphasizes the beautiful flavours in desserts.
All Purpose Flour – use regular all purpose flour for this cake. I have not tested it with cake flour, bread flour or self rising flour.
Dark Brown Sugar – dark brown sugar has a higher molasses content than light brown sugar, which gives it more depth of flavour in comparison to light. If you only have light on hand, you can use it in a pinch!
Spices – not traditionally used in a sticky toffee cake, but you know I love adding my own twist to things! Cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg taste and smell like fall and winter, making them perfect for this season, and their flavours blend perfectly with the raisin puree. This Indian girl loves cardamom, and I’ll always it everywhere I can, so I’ve added a little in this cake which adds a beautiful floral note.
Milk – I’ve used 2% milk here, but 3.25% (whole) milk will work as well. I have not tried alternative milks, however a creamy barista style oat milk may work!
Let’s make it!
Process:
Sticky Raisin Cake
Ingredients
- 200 grams California Raisins Thompson variety
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tea bag orange pekoe, or earl gray
- 200 ml warm milk 2% or 3.25%
- 1 1/2 cups minus 2 Tbsp all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 2/3 cup salted butter softened
- 2/3 cup plus 3T dark brown sugar packed
- 3 large eggs room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
Toffee Syrup
- 3/4 cup salted butter
- 3/4 cup dark brown sugar lightly packed
- 1 1/2 cups 35% cream
- 1.5 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350F.
- Place the raisins in a medium sized bowl, along with the baking soda and tea bag.
- Pour over the warm milk, let sit for twenty to thirty minutes or until the raisins have softened
- While the raisins soak combine the softened butter and brown sugar in a large bowl. Mix well until fluffy, about two minutes.
- Add in the vanilla and eggs, stir to combine well.
- Remove the tea bag from the raisins and blend the raisins along with the milk until smooth.
- Pour the raisin puree into the butter mixture, stir to combine.
- In another bowl, or sifter, add the flour, baking powder, salt, and ground spices. Sift into the butter mixture and stir just to combine and until no flour is visible.
- Prepare an 8 inch square metal baking pan: butter the pan and line with parchment, lightly butter the parchment as well.
- Pour the cake mixture into the pan.
- Bake for twenty five minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
- While the cake is baking, make the toffee.
- Combine the butter, sugar, cream and vanilla in a small heavy bottomed sauce pot on medium heat.
- Stir consistently until the ingredients have melted and sauce has thickened to your liking, about eight to ten minutes.
- Once the cake has baked, remove it from the oven and use a fork or toothpick to poke holes all over.
- Pour half of the toffee mixture over the cake and let it sit for at least fifteen minutes to absorb the toffee.
- Cut the cake into nine squares and serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, topped with more toffee sauce.
