Coffee Dried Currants Cake

Note: It’s snowing at The Yum Blog – those aren’t white dots but snow flakes.

If plum cakes can be cakes without plums then dried currants can be currants that have nothing to do with currants.

Dried currants as the Wikipedia article rattles, are tiny seedless intensely flavoured grapes from the island of Zante in Greece. Greece account for close to 90% of all the Zante grapes in the world, making it the largest producer and exporter. In fact the production of currants traditionally in Greece has been so large that once it even incited an economic crisis in late 19th century and early years of the 20th century. One of the oldest known raisins in the world, their current name derives from “Reysyns de Corauntz” or “Raisins of Corinth”.

I have never made a cake without chocolate or cocoa – so this is my first attempt. I dumped in ingredients with a rough estimate of what goes inside a cake and I was delighted with the results.

Ingredients

• All Purpose Flour – 1 1/2 cups
• Sugar – 1 cup
• Butter – 1/2 cup
• Coffee Decoction – 1/2 cup (coffee concentrate)
• Dried Currants – 3/4 cup
• Espresso Powder – 4 tbsp
• Curd – 4 tbsp (adjust as per batter consistency)
• Baking Powder – 1/4 tsp
• Cooking Soda – 1/4 tsp

Method

1. Line and Grease a microwave safe square glass dish (8in to 9in in size). Leave some paper to hang from the sides.
2. Soak the Dried Currants in Coffee Dicoction for 1 hour or so until the currants are plump.
3. Powder the sugar. Take a large mixing bowl and cream the butter and sugar.
4. Add the flour followed by the Espresso Powder. Mix well.
5. Add the dried currants with the Coffee dicoction.
6. In a small cup, mix the curd with baking powder and cooking soda. Add this to the batter in the mixing bowl and mix well.
7. Check the consistency of the batter which should be thick but flowing. Add a couple of more tablespoons of curd or milk to adjust consistency if required.
8. Transfer batter to the greased dish and microwave on high for 7 minutes. Check for doneness by inserting a toothpick in the center of the cake. Keep for an additional minute or so if the toothpick doesn’t come out clean.
9. Remove from oven when done and wait for the cake to cool before cutting into pieces.

This is my entry for AFAM – Dry Fruits which is being hosted by us for the month of December.