Jan’s Austrian Gugelhupf

Gugelhopf is a southern German, Austrian, Swiss and Alsatian term for a marble cake or Bundt cake. It can either be a bread or cake. The recipe I got this from was for a bread but we found it to be too dry so I started using a cake mix. We have it every Christmas. My Mom even gave me a Gugelhupf cake pan.

• Ready In: 1 hr 15 mins
• Serves: 8
• Yields: 1 cake

Ingredients

• 1 (18 ounce) package  moist  white cake mix
• 3  eggs (or as called for by your cake mix)
• 1⁄3 cup  oil (or as called for by your cake mix)
• 1 1⁄3 cups water (or as called for by your cake mix)
• 1  teaspoon  almond extract
• 1⁄2 cup golden raisin
• 1⁄4 cup rum or 1⁄4 cup boiling water
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons lemon zest
• 1⁄2 cup  chopped lightly toasted  blanched almond
• 1  tablespoon butter or 1  tablespoon margarine, softened or 1  tablespoon  cooking spray, with flour
• 3  tablespoons  finely ground  blanched almonds
• 16  whole lightly toasted  blanched almonds
•  flour
•  powdered sugar

Directions

1. Soak the raisins in the rum; let stand till plump. Using the butter coat the inside of a Gugelhupf pan or a tube cake pan and sprinkle with the finely ground Almonds OR spray with the cooking spray then sprinkle with the almonds (I find this works best for releasing the finished cake); place a whole almond in each large section of the pan.
2. Prepare the cake mix according to package directions but leave out 1 teaspoons of water and replace it with the Almond Extract. Drain and pat dry the raisins and sprinkle with a small amount of flour. Add the raisins. lemon zest and chopped almonds to the batter and gently fold inches Pour the batter in the prepared pan and bake according to package directions. Cool on a wire rack. Sprinkle the cooled cake with powdered sugar and serve.