Quest for the Perfect Coffee Cake! Part One

At the suggestion of someone in our office, I've decided to use the next month or so to find the best coffee cake recipe. I'm hoping to start with a base recipe and build on it, take feedback and perfect it. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a before picture so I've only got a couple of afters. If smell is any indication, this came out just fine. It's an interesting recipe that starts with boiling raisins in copious butter and brown sugar. I used a larger pan so I adjusted my baking time to about 20 minutes.

Ingredients

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup water
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour one 7x7 inch square baking pan.
2. Boil sugar, raisins, butter, and the water until the raisins absorb most of the water and are quite soggy and mushy. Set aside and let cool completely.
3. Sift the flour, cinnamon, and the baking powder together. Stir the flour mixture into the raisin mixture and mix until just combined. Spread the batter into the prepared pan.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 40 to 45 minutes or until cake springs back upon the touch. Immediately put on a wire rack to cool. This is a very soft cake, liable to break easily. Take care when you cut the cake.