Gugelhupf    (Traditional Recipe)

In a small cooking pot, add orange juice and sugar. Mix together Bring to a boil. Remove from heat and mix in rum. Add raisins to a small bowl, then pour rum-orange juice mixture over raisins. Allow raisins to soak for a minimum of 4 hours to soften them.

Add flour to a large bowl. Mix in dried yeast. Mix in salt, powdered sugar, vanilla sugar, and orange zest.

Cut butter into cubes and add to flour mixture. Mix together.

Add eggs one at a time, mixing each egg into the dough before adding the next.

Drain raisins in a colander. Knead them into the dough.

Knead chopped almonds into the dough.

Prepare a cake pan (Bundt form or Gugelhupf form) by greasing it with butter. Sprinkle the pan with the ground almonds and shake pan around to distribute the almonds. Place dough into pan and press dough with hands so that it is evenly distributed in the pan. Cover pan with a dish cloth and allow dough to rise in a warm place for 30-45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 325°F (160°C).

Bake cake for about 45 minutes. The low temperature of the oven should keep the cake from getting too dark. Test cake for doneness by sticking the center with a toothpick - if it comes out clean, the cake is done; if it doesn't come out clean, bake the cake a few more minutes and retest.

Remove cake from oven when its done and allow it to cool in the cake pan for 20 minutes. Remove cake from pan and turn-over, so that the flat side becomes the bottom. Allow cake to cool completely.

Sift powdered sugar over the cake as decoration.