Cake, Italian stylee, and it's not Panettone! Buccellato, or Raisin and Aniseed Cake

 

 

I really need to up the cake quota on this blog! I quick glance through will reveal plenty of one pot wonders but not enough cake, and life needs cake, so in the spirit of evening things up a little and also because I am practising escapism through cooking Mediterranean stylee, here is a moist, delicious and versatile cake by the name of 'Buccatello', or raisin and aniseed cake if you happen to be just pretending to be Italian.

 

This cake is a celebratory cake (it says in 'Lazy Days and Beach Blankets', from where this recipe is from) and that kind of justifies the addition of a bit of booze to this cake. It's also a yeasted cake so once it is a little past its best you can bung it in the toaster and spread a bit of jam on it. What's not to like?

 

My addition to this was a late one. When it came out of the mould I thought that this cake did not look celebratory enough, so I mixed up a bit of icing sugar and lemon juice and drizzled some icing over the top. I think this would also look so pretty and celebratory with some summer fruit piled into the middle of the cake.

 

Raisin and Aniseed Cake, or 'Buccatello', adapted from  'Lazy Days and Beach Blankets', by Various.

 

Ingredients:

 

Sachet of dried yeast (or 20g fresh yeast)

150ml milk, warmed

400g plain white flour

115g caster sugar

2 eggs beaten, plus an extra egg white to glaze

50ml Marsala or Vin Santo

50g unsalted butter, melted

finely grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon

1 teaspoon of aniseed

50g raisins

sea salt

 

For the glaze.

 

Three tablespoons of icing sugar.

The juice of half a lemon (use the lemon you zested for the cake)

 

Method:

 

 

 

Mix the yeast with the warm milk until dissolved then allow to stand.

 

 

 

Sift the flour into a bowl and mix with the sugar and a pinch of salt.

 

 

 

Make a well in the centre and add the yeast mixture, eggs, Marsala, melted butter, lemon zest and aniseed.

 

Mix until the dough comes together (I used the dough hook on my mixer but you could use a palette knife). The dough will be soft.

 

Knead until the dough becomes smooth and elastic.

 

Knead in the raisins.

 

 

Roll the dough into a sausage shape and place into a well buttered ring/savarin/kugelhopf mould, pushing the ends together.

 

 

 

Cover with a damp tea towel and and leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour and a half or until the dough doubles in size.

 

Preheat the oven to 180c

 

Bake in a preheated oven for about 45 minutes, or until golden brown.

 

 

 

Leave to cool in the tin and when just warm, turn out and cool.

 

Mix the lemon glaze by combining the icing sugar with the lemon juice. You want a dropping consistency that isn't too runny. You might need to mix together the icing sugar and lemon juice in stages to get the consistency you want.

 

 

 

Using a spoon, drizzle the lemon glaze over the cake.