Beer Cake (Kopie)

*****
This beer cake came about, not because I was pregnant and craving something weird. Nope. It was late. After dinner. And my nocturnal sweet tooth came to life. So, I began scrounging my cookbooks And while I was browsing through a cookbook I saw a cake called a "beer cake". I thought Ok, interesting. Hmmm. I do have a ton of beer sitting in my bottom vegetable bin drawer - that I really didn't want taking up that space!!! (GRRRRRR - silly husband!)

I do have another beer cake on my site - it's a little decieving in name. But it uses a dark beer. You can see it here:

Spice Cake Recipe

This tastes like homemade raisin bread with that yeast raised flavor. The surprise is it's cake-like in texture. Very interesting combo. And definitely soak the raisins in bourbon!

Only bummer, it takes over an hour to bake! Seriously. But to outweigh the cooking time - this is one of those can't pass up easy cake recipes.

If you want to tone it down to an American rendition check out the substitution section below for ideas. But really the only Italian dessert recipe thing I did was:

soak the raisins in bourbon vanilla

add a minor hint of anise powder to the topping

ALL of which can be omitted. But why be boring?

YIELD:1 - 10 inch cake

Ingredients:
* 1 cup of flour
* 3 cups sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1/8 teaspoon powdered anise (TOTALLY optional!)
* 1 1/8 cup unsalted butter
* 3 eggs
* 1 Cup of raisins
* Enough bourbon to cover the raisins (so they can soak and absorb!)
* 2 cups of beer (pale)
* 4 cups of flour
* 1 1/2 rounded tablespoon of baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt

Procedure
* Pre-heat oven to 350 F.
* Set aside raisins in deep cup and cover with enough boubon so raisins sit in liquid.

* Prepare topping:
* Mix 1 cup of the flour with cinnamon, anise and 1 cup of sugar.
* Cut in 1/2 cup of the butter - then set aside. (Topping done!)
* In large bowl beat remaining sugar and remaining butter until creamy.
* Add eggs, beat after each addition.
* Sift the dry ingredients and add to egg/butter mixture.
* Fold in beer and raisins.
* Spoon mixture into the greased 10 inch cake pan.
* Add the topping
* Bake for 1 hour (really!) or until toothpick comes out clean.

TIP: I used a 9 inch pan and I baked this for 1 hr and 20 mins. I don't advise going with a smaller pan.
My topping imploded because the center wasn't done, and the the outer edge was dry. I'd stick with a 9 inch pan!