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.

Give Away - Hot Drinks

Yey! My first blog giveaway just in time for cool  (I mean cold) weather.  Hot Drinks by Mary Lou Heiss and Robert J. Heiss.

Nothing warms up frigid fingers and toes like a mug of spicy mulled cider or creamy hot chocolate. HOT DRINKS presents 50 original recipes for mixed coffees, teas, punches, cocoas, ciders, and cocktails perfectly suited for cozying up by the fire or heating up holiday family get-togethers.
 
RULES
This giveaway is available to residents of the Canada and U.S. ONLY. I will mail a copy of the book to the winner, so please make sure that I have a way to reach you by including your email address if it is not in your profile.

How to Enter
- Question: What is your favourite cake flavour that I baked? Search my blog and leave me the answer in the comments with a copy of the link to the post.

- Earn an extra entry by tweeting about the giveaway on twitter - include a link to THIS post. I will need a link of your tweet. Please leave a separate comment for each entry.

LIMIT 2 ENTRIES PER PERSON
The giveaway ends on Monday December 20th at Midnight PST. One winner will be chosen randomly and announced on Wednesday December 22th on my blog.

A BIG thank you to all! Good luck everyone!

Jack and Jill Cake

Thank you to Lori-Ann who placed a request for a Jack and Jill Cake for Shane and Jodi. 

It was to be two tiered with the bottom flavour a two layered cookies and cream.  The top tier would be a two layered vanilla cake with the bottom layer dyed with a blue food colouring and the top tier pink.  Here is my recipe for the cookies and Cream Cake.

Ingredients:
1 (18.25 ounce) package white cake mix
1 1/4 cups water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 egg whites
1 cup chocolate sandwich cookie crumbs

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans.

2.In a large bowl, mix the cake mix, water, oil, and 3 egg whites with an electric mixer on high speed for 2 minutes. Gently stir in crushed cookies. Pour batter into the prepared pans.

3.Bake for 25 to 35 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans. Remove from pans, and completely cool on racks.

I decorated this cake with buttercream frosting and added fondant accents to bring the theme together.  I made the baby onsie and booties with gumpaste.

Red Velvet (CHRISTMAS) Cupcakes

I received a request for Christmas Cupcakes once again. Tis the Season! I had carte blanche on this 35 plus cupcake order. I thought nothing says Christmas like the Red Velvet Cupake.

Wait a second.... I will add that you cannot go wrong with Red Velvet for any occasion.
I decided on a Pull Apart Cake aka a Pull Away Cake. This is a number of cupcakes placed together to create a theme or an actual cake. I had completed this project in August for 1 year old Drew by completely icing over thirty cupcakes so they ended up looking like a sheet cake.

Today I formed cupcakes as a Christmas Tree. First of all here are the ingredients that you will need to bake your Red Velvet Cupcakes:

Ingredients
1 package white cake mix (18.25 oz size)

2 tablespoons cocoa
5 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
2 (1 oz bottle) red liquid food colouring

While cupcake batter is blending I add red food colouring

Hmmm.....kind of red

Let's fill those cups!

Nicely baked

Arrange cupcakes in form of a ChristmasTree

Decorate all with cream cheese frosting (click for recipe). I had to dye it in various colours.... And Voila!