Tuesday, November 27, 2012

festive chocolate raisin cake

You would think that teaching is quite a social job, right?!

The reality is that for most of the day teachers are in a room with a class of children and they rarely have an assisting teacher or adult to bounce ideas off.

When teachers do finally escape the confines of the classroom it's on the way to find out why a printer isn't working, or collect resources for the next lessons, or to grab a quick cuppa (which is never finished) and never walking! We are always scuttling around like ants in a termite mound.

When we do 'get together' it is for staff meetings and professional development where some of the best sharing of ideas happens.

You can guarantee, however, that if there's a special occasion - resulting in a morning tea- most teachers will ignore the printer issues or the impending lesson to grab a slab of cake and cup of tea. Cake and tea is something that teachers do very well (until they reach Friday evening and they also do wine very well). Of course I am generalising!

This recipe came from a school I taught at in my first two years of teaching. It's a spicy chocolate cake and, although I hadn't cooked it until today (8 years later) its just how I remember it. Chocolatey with that hunt of spice and moist with sultanas scattered through it.

I grabbed a photocopy of the recipe at the time (photocopying - another thing teachers used to do well but which has been frowned upon since we discovered that children don't learn simply by learning by rote and completing 'stencils') and have has it stashed in my scrap book ever since.

Chocolate Raisin Cake

Preheat oven to 180°c.

In a saucepan put 1 1/2 cups of water; 1 cup raisins; 250g butter; 1 cup sugar; 1/2 tspn each cinnamon and ground cloves (I added 1 tspn each of mixed spice and ground ginger); 3 heaped tblspns cocoa and; 1/4 tspn salt.

Stir together and bring to the boil then let simmer for 5 mins. Removed from heat and cool. It's important to make certain the mixture is cooled before the next step.

Dissolve 1 tspn bicarbonate of soda in 1/4 cup boiling water and add to the mixture along with 2 cups sifted plain flour. Stir until well combined and then pour into a greased, lined 23cm cake tin. Cook for 30 mins.

This recipe came from Ronnie Forsyth who, at the time of printing in the SMH, ran the Bonds Corner Deli in Northbridge.

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