Cinnamon and Raisins Cake with Chocolate Sauce

I love having people coming over! Yesterday Carsten came over and brought a new board game which despite all the complicated rules was very good. Something about 45 minutes before he came I decided to make a nice cake. However, the one that I was initially aiming for required half a kilo of almonds, which I didn't have so I switched to my second best option: raisins and cinnamon. And since Stratis would kill me if I would not add at least SOME chocolate I also made a chocolate sauce which I later drizzled over the top of the cake.

We were playing (or at least trying to understand the rules) and without noticing we almost finished it all. At the beginning I was worried about the consequences of eating so much cake at 11 in the evening (I usually try not to eat after 7-8p.m.) But I think I will cite Carsten's saying: "This is an advantage of being an adult. You could eat anything you want, whenever you want it. You could even eat ice cream for breakfast!". Actually, earlier that day I ate ice cream for breakfast, and I was going to exploit my advantage as adult twice that day.

At the end, I actually used my advantage again today, when I ate the leftover cake for breakfast and it was goooood!!!

INGREDIENTS:

150 gr butter, softened
1 1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 cups water
1 cup black raising
5-10 cloves
2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp white vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
2 1/2 cups flour

For the chocolate sauce:

2 1/2 cups water or milk (depending whether you want the sauce to be bitter or milky)
1 cup sugar (you may use half white and half brown sugar)
3/4 cup cocoa powder

1. In a small pan add the raisins, cloves and water and cook over a medium heat for about 15 minutes. Remove the cloves and drain the raising reserving 1 cup of the liquid.
2. In a large bowl beat the butter with a mixer until it is white, light and creamy.
3. Constantly beating, add the sugar to the butter.
4. Add the eggs and beat until the liquid is uniform.
5. Add the salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, juice from the raisins and flour. Mix well.
6. Add the baking powder and vinegar and as soon as you see bubbles try to mix the dough in a way that the bubbles stay inside. At the end the mixture should be thick but still "runny". Something like this:


7. Pour the mixture in a buttered cake form and bake in the over for about 40 minutes at 220°C. The cake is ready when you stick a match in it and the match comes back without any liquid dough on it. Remove and put on a serving plate.
8. Prepare the chocolate sauce. In a heavy non-stick pan put all the ingredients and cook stirring constantly until all the sugar dissolves and the sauce becomes thick.
9. Let the cake cool, drizzle it with the chocolate sauce and serve.