Birthday Black Cake

A friend of mine requested a traditional Jamaican Black Cake for her husband's 35th birthday.  I had baked this previously, but decided to try a different recipe this time around.  With this cake I used fruit that was soaked for two months, I added bread crumbs to the recipe and an extra tablespoon of browning.

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound unsalted butter
• 1/2 pound light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 4 eggs
• 3 tablespoons of browning
• 6 ounces bread crumbs
• 6 ounces flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup rum
• 1 pint Port
• 4 cups mixed marinated fruit, recipe follows, squeezed and finely chopped

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the vanilla, lime juice, and lime zest. Add the eggs 1 at a time, and incorporate well. Combine bread crumbs, flour, all the spices, baking powder, and salt. Combine rum and port. Add flour mixture alternately with rum/port mixture into the batter. Fold in the chopped marinated fruit.
Prepare 1 (8-inch) cake pan. Fill the pan 3/4 of the way and bake until a skewer comes out of the center of the cake clean, about 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Mixed Marinated Fruit:

• 1 pound golden raisins
• 4 ounces mixed peel
• 4 ounces cherries
• 1/2 pound prunes (pitted), cut in quarters or eighths, depending on size
• Jamaican white rum
• Passover wine

Grind raisins, prunes, mixed peel, and cherries and put in a glass jar and cover with mixture of equal parts Jamaican white rum and passover wine. Cover with a tight fitting lid, label, and date the jar. Put in a cool, dry cupboard. From time to time, check the fruits to see if more liquor is needed, as the fruits will plump and soak up the liquid.
Keep the fruit covered in liquor. It is best to allow the fruit to marinate for at least 1 month for best flavor.

This cake was covered with a delicious royal icing.

Beat 2 egg whites to a froth. Add 1 pound confectioners sugar, 1 tsp lemon juice a little at a time on low speed.  DO NOT LEAVE UNUSED ICING UNATTENDED...IF YOU HAVE TO STOP, MAKE SURE IT IS COVERED WITH DAMP PAPER TOWELS, OR COVERED AND REFRIGERATED. This icing hardens and dries up quickly. A second layer of icing may be applied when the first has dried. Decorate as desired.

Jamaican Black Cake

Thank you to Nadine who requested a Jamaican Black Cake for the holidays.  This is a traditional holiday dessert which is deliciously, dark and rich and unlike any other fruit cake you will run across.

It is a dense cake soaked with rum and port wine and allowed to sit and ferment for several weeks or months.  It is also served at weddings and special occasions.

Here is the recipe that I used for this delicious cake. 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup flour
8 ounces margarine or butter
8 ounces sugar
4 eggs
1 pound raisins*
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 ounces mixed peel*
4 ounces cherries*
1/2 pound prunes (chopped)
1 cup wine/brandy*
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 lime or lemon, finely grated rind only
2 tablespoons browning

Directions:
*I grounded and soaked these ingredients in rum and wine a few weeks in advance.  Kept in a sealed glass jar.

Cream butter, sugar and browning until soft and fluffy. Sieve all dry ingredients together Beat eggs, wine/brandy together. Add egg mixture to creamed butter and sugar. Add fruits. Add flour and fold in. Do no over-beat when mixing. Bake at 350F for 1 1/2 hours. 

This baked an 8 1/2" round. I decorated this cake with royal icing and silver dragees.

Jamaican Wedding Cake

Thank you to my friend Vanessa who connected me to someone who wanted her Jamaican fruit cake to decorated with royal icing.  The cake to be would be travelling from here in Toronto, Ontario to Ocho Rios, Jamaica.  Cakes are not usually covered with royal icing, however since it would be on display in extremely hot weather this choice of icing would be perfect.

I received 4 cakes:  6", 8", 10" and 12".

Royal icing forms to a very hard texture, and will stand up to hot weather and humidity.

Royal Icing Recipe
-3 egg whites, room temperature
-1 lb. confectioners' sugar
-1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
-Combine ingredients, beat at high speed for 7-10 minutes. Yields less volume than royal icing made with meringue powder.

Royal icing is a hard drying icing. Please keep covered with a damp cloth. Humidity will greatly effect this icing.  Be sure to wash all utensils with a good dish soap.

Here are some photos behind the design of the cake.

And the final product: