Recipe: Walnut Spice Cake with Caramel Frosting

WALNUT SPICE CAKE

FOR THE CAKE:
1 cup seedless raisins
1 cup walnuts
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup boiling water
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sift before measuring
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
1 whole egg
2 egg yolks
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
FOR THE CARAMEL FROSTING:
3/4 cup butter or margarine
1 1/2 cups light-brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup light cream or evaporated milk, undiluted
3 cups unsifted powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

TO MAKE THE CAKE:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease lightly with butter two (8x1 1/2-inch) layer cake pans.

Coarsely chop raisins and walnuts; place in medium bowl. Add baking soda; then stir in boiling water. Set aside to cool.

Sift flour with cinnamon and salt.

In large bowl, with electric mixer at med speed, beat butter until creamy. Add sugar, a little at a time, beating until light and fluffy. Stop beater once or twice, and scrape down side of bowl with rubber spatula.

Add whole egg and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating after each addition and scraping down side of bowl with spatula. Beat until light and fluffy. Add lemon juice and vanilla.

With wooden spoon, beat in flour mixture, in fourths, alternately with raisin mixture, in thirds, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake 45 minutes, or until cake tests done. Cool in pans on wire rack 5 minutes. With small spatula, loosen around edge. Turn out on wire rack; turn top up; let cool completely.

Put layers together with some of Caramel Frosting. Frost top and side with remaining frosting, making swirls with tip of spatula.

TO MAKE THE CARAMEL FROSTING:
Melt butter in small saucepan over low heat. Remove from heat.

Add brown sugar, stirring until smooth. Over low heat, bring to boiling, stirring; boil, stirring, 1 min. Remove from heat.

Add cream; over low heat, return just to boiling. Remove from heat; let cool to 110 degrees F on candy thermometer, or until bottom of pan feels lukewarm.

With portable electric mixer at medium speed, or with wooden spoon, beat in powdered sugar until frosting is thick. (If it seems too thin to spread, gradually beat in a little more powdered sugar.)

Add vanilla. Set in bowl of ice water; beat until frosting is thick enough to spread.

Makes enough to fill and frost top and side of an (8 or 9-inch) two-layer cake

Makes 1 (2-layer) cake
Source: Magazine clipping