Zaletti Cake by Nancy Young

Zaletti are addictive little Venetian cookies that happily feel both indulgent and wholesome due to their buttery, wholegrain base and raisin-rich sweetness. While I love them in their cookie persona, I don't always have time to roll and cut--so I came up with a zaletti cake that I could prepare quickly to get the flavor I love with a modest outlay of time. They can be cut into squares large or small, or, if I want to upscale them a bit, I can cut them with a biscuit cutter, as shown, since there's always some willing victim circling the kitchen ready to devour any oddly-shaped scraps.

Independence Day is an ideal time to Americanize some other country's good idea, and this cake represents a sweet bit of Yankee ingenuity. As is usual with new schemes, however, they often scandalize the mother country--which this cake may do, since I make it with whole wheat flour and imitation rum flavoring. Absolute outrage and unsought fireworks may follow the substitution of vanilla and rosemary for the rum, but it makes for a delightful treat just the same. Serves way too few, way too often.

Ingredients
1 stick butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons imitation rum flavoring OR 1 teaspoon vanilla and 2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, chopped fine
3 eggs
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup whole wheat flour OR 1 1/4 cup white flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer, cream together the butter, oil, sugar, and flavoring. Add eggs and beat until light and creamy, about 2 minutes. Stir together the flour, cornmeal, and baking powder, and stir into the butter mixture. Fold in raisins and pour batter into a 10 x 10 inch cake pan or equivalent pan. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until cake tests clean.

Tags: 2010, Recipes by Nancy Young