The Scoop
All aboard for the bread pretending to be cake.
Railway Cake, also known as Spotted Dog, is a classic Irish soda bread studded with juicy raisins and baked into a tender, lightly sweet loaf. Slice it warm, slather it with butter, and suddenly dinner has a very good reason to slow down.
Ingredients
- 4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for flouring a work surface, sifted
- 1 teaspoon baking soda, sifted
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 1/4 cups buttermilk, plus more to taste
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup raisins, golden raisins, or dried currants
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Generously grease or spray an 8-inch cake pan.
- Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixture.
- Add the baking soda, the sugar, and the salt to the bowl with the flour, whisking until well combined.
- Make a well in the center of the bowl of the dry ingredients.
- In a measuring cup, whisk together the buttermilk and the egg.
- Add the raisins to the well in the dry ingredients.
- Add the buttermilk and egg mixture to the well and mix until everything is just combined. Be careful not to overmix it.
- Lightly flour a flat work surface.
- Turn the dough onto the floured worksurface and pull the pieces together, shaping it into a 1 1/2-2-inch-tall round loaf.
- Transfer the rounded loaf to the prepared baking pan.
- Use a sharp knife to cut a cross over the top of the loaf, making 4 quarters.
- Poke a hole into each of the quarters.
- Using a second 8-inch pan if available, cover the pan with the dough. This will replicate the original baking process of the soda bread.
- Bake for 30 minutes.
- Transfer the top cake pan away from the bottom cake pan and continue baking until the top of the bread is golden, about 15 minutes.
- Transfer the loaf from the baking pan and move it to a wire cooling rack.
- Serve while still warm.
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