Try your own black cake this Christmas

One could not wait for Christmas time, when, after soaking prunes, raisins and other “foreign” ingredients in a large jar with alcohol for weeks or even months, homes would be filled with the delicious aroma of black cake baking in the oven.

Today, it is quite easy as the products are available throughout the year and baking is not as tedious as it use to be. So start making your list of ingredients for your own homemade black cake.

Rosemary Khan of Princes Town has been baking cakes for relatives and friends for many years. She says among all the cakes served on the table people reach for black cake. “It is the one cake that seem to disappear quite fast from the Christmas table,” she says.

Khan added that there are lot of strong rums available here in the Caribbean for making a perfect black cake. She soaks her fruits three days before mixing the other ingredients for baking. Here is Rosemary’s recipe for Black Cake.

Ingredients:

1 lb all-purpose flour

4 tsp baking powder

2 tsp mixed spice

1/2 tsp grated nutmeg

1 lb butter (use margarine for pareve)

1 lb sugar

8 eggs

1 tsp lemon essence

2 tsp lime rind (zested)

2 tsp almond essence

2 tsp vanilla

1 lb pitted prunes

1 lb raisins

1 lb currants

1 bottle cherry brandy

1 bottle rum

2 tbsp bitters

1 lb brown sugar

1/2 cup boiling hot water

Method:

Three to five days before, chop up all the fruits for the fruit base. Place in a large bowl, pour in bitters, cherry brandy and rum . Cover to soak up the liquor. Pour the soaked fruit and juices into a blender and blend until thick. Burn sugar until caramelised, add hot water gradually. Mix well and leave to cool.

Cream the butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, mixing to incorporate. Add lemon essence, lemon zest, almond essence and vanilla. Mix and sift flour, baking powder, mixed spice and nutmeg. Gradually add sifted ingredients to creamed mixture. Mix in fruit base puree and “browning”. Pour batter into greased tins that have been doubly lined with brown paper or parchment paper. Bake for three hours at 250 degrees. Once removed from the oven soak the tops with equal portions of the remaining bottle of rum.