Recipe Wednesday: Icelandic Christmas Cake

Ron (my hubs) is a food broker, and part of his job is giving out samples of the food he represents to potential clients. He was talking about baking muffins and quick breads to give out and I was reminded that I've been sitting on the following recipe for Icelandic Christmas cake for months! I don't know about you, but I love cardamom, so the fact that it's technically a Christmas cake should not deter us from baking it in April, right? The original recipe calls for regular raisins, but I used golden raisins 'cause Ron and I like them more for their brighter flavor. A couple other things you might want to try: different dried fruits or lemon/orange zest instead of lemon extract.



ICELANDIC CHRISTMAS CAKE

1 cup white sugar
3/4 cup butter
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup golden raisins

Preheat oven to 350º. Grease an 11-inch loaf pan.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at time, beating well after each one. Stir in the milk, lemon extract and cardamom. 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 for 55 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean.

The verdict: The loaf is slightly spiced, just sweet enough and would be perfect with a cup of strong coffee in the morning or some iced tea in the afternoon. It would also make a tasty cake for some kind of fruit and cream concoction or decadent french toast. You can consider all those suggestions my Icelandic Christmas gift to you. ;)