Clove Cake--Mccall Cook Book Version

I love cloves! There, I said it. I know that some people associate it with early childhood trips to the dentist but that is not MY experience. I remember my Grandmother's kitchen, aromas of clove, cinnamon and cardamom drifting through the air. Rarely does clove get the feature recipe; it's usually buried under tamer cousins. So, if you also adore cloves and a rich, dense cake, give this a try.

• Ready In: 1 hr 30 mins
• Yields: 12 slices

Ingredients

• 3  cups cake flour
• 1  tablespoon ground cloves
• 1  tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1  teaspoon baking powder
• 1⁄2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1⁄8 teaspoon salt
• 1  cup raisins (plumped beforehand in a small amount of water, drained)
• 1  cup butter, soft (no substitutes)
• 2 1⁄2 cups sugar
• 5  eggs, beaten until light and lemon-coloured
• 1  cup buttermilk (room temperature)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 10-12 cup Bundt pan (I use Wilton's Cake Release and cakes slide out of their tin with ease!).
2. Sift 2 3/4 cups cake flour with the cloves, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium-sized bowl. Set aside. Toss remaining 1/4 cup of flour with the raisins. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, beat at medium speed the butter until light creamy. Gradually add the sugar, 1/2 a cup at a time, until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
4. Blend the beaten eggs into the sugar mixture at medium speed, scraping the sides down using a rubber spatula.
5. At low speed, alternately blend into the sugar-egg mixture the dry ingredients (in thirds) and the the buttermilk (in halves), beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Beat ONLY until blended; stir in the floured raisins by hand.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared Bundt pan; bake at 60-65 minutes or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Cool cake in pan, on wire rack, for 10 minutes. Gently loosen, with a dull knife, the edges of the cake; turn out cake onto a rack. Cool completely, about an hour. This is a large, moist cake that keeps very well.
8. Serve plain, with a dusting of powdered sugar, an orange-flavoured glaze or orange-flavoured cream cheese frosting.