Irish Spice Cake

Flavorful Irish Spice Cake is just the thing to serve at your St. Patrick's Day celebration. It's spicy, not too sweet and very satisfying. 

A bonus is that it takes just 15 minutes to get the cake ready for the oven. A square of this rich cake that's coated with a tart lemon glaze and spiked with raisins and hearty doses of ginger and allspice is a traditional Irish treat and especially nice served with a dollop of softly whipped cream.

Irish Spice Cake
1 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 cup water
1 cup raisins
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 tablespoons boiling water
2 eggs
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9 to 10-inch square pan and line the base with a strip of parchment paper that extends over two opposite sides. Also butter the parchment.

The prepared baking dish.

In large sauce pan, combine the butter, sugar, corn syrup and cup of water. Cook over medium heat until the butter is melted, stirring constantly.

Combine the butter, sugar, corn syrup and water in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until the butter is melted.

Remove the mixture from the heat and add the raisins. Set this aside to cool slightly.

Remove the butter/sugar mixture from the heat and stir in the raisins.

In medium sized bowl, dissolve the baking soda in the 2 tablespoons of boiling water. Add the eggs, salt, ginger and allspice and whisk well.

Dissolve the baking soda in the 2 tablespoons of boiling water.

To the baking soda mixture, add the eggs, salt, ginger and allspice.

Stir until well combined and add to the butter/sugar/raisin mixture.

Add this mixture to the butter/sugar/raisin mixture.

Finally, add the flour and mix until well combined and smooth.

Finally, add the flour.

Whisk until smooth.

Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish and bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until done and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

The cake before baking.

Let the cake cool a bit in the pan before removing and placing on a cooling rack.

The baked spice cake.

After cooling for a bit, the spice cake lifts easily out of the pan.

While the cake is still warm, drizzle with the lemon glaze.

Lemon Glaze
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2/3 cup powdered sugar

Whisk the lemon juice and sugar together until smooth. Drizzle evenly over the warm cake.

Drizzle the glaze over the cake while it is still warm.