Ellie Mae'S Not-So-Irish Soda Bread - cooking recipe

Ingredients

4 cups unsifted flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cardamom
1/3 cup butter or 1/3 cup margarine
2 cups dark seedless raisins
1 1/2 tablespoons caraway seeds
1 1/2 cups buttermilk or 1 1/2 cups sour milk
1 egg, Beaten

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
You'll need two 8-inch round greased cake pans.
Blend together in a large bowl flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, baking soda and cardamom.
Cut in butter or margarine until mixture resembles coarse meal. A pastry cutter works really well for this.
Add raisins, caraway seeds, milk and egg and stir until blended. Dough will be stiff.
Turn out dough from bowl and knead on floured board or counter for about one minute, until smooth.
Divide dough into two balls. I weigh the dough on my kitchen scale to get two loaves of equal weight/size.
Place in two greased 8-inch round cake pans. Flatten dough to fill pans. Cut a cross in top of each loaf.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.