Susan Jung's recipe for chocolate rum-raisin cake - rich and decadent

I was in the mood for chocolate rum-raisin cake, but none of the recipes I found online or in my books sounded delicious enough. So I adapted my mother's recipe for sour cream cake by adding cocoa, melted chocolate, rum and raisins, and by slightly increasing the amount of sugar and leavening. My first attempt was pretty successful, my second attempt - where I doubled the amount of rum and raisins - was even better. Be warned: it's potent.

This is currently my favourite cake - and it's proving popular with friends, too. I like it because it's moist, strong (it contains a lot of rum), delicious and easy to make. You do need to plan ahead, though: let the raisins soak in the rum for at least a day, and take the butter, eggs and sour cream out of the fridge about 45 minutes (or less, if it's warmer than 30 degrees Celsius) before starting to mix the ingredients. While you can eat the cake as soon as it's cooled, it's much better after it has rested for a few hours and the syrup has had time to soak in. Really, it's best the next day.

If you're making this cake for children or teetotallers, soak the raisins in tea, rather than rum.

This cake is baked in a round, fluted tube pan that holds two litres. If you want to bake it in a layer cake pan, decrease the amount of baking soda to half a teaspoon.