Black cake

antoniab, Jun 8, 4:37am
Anyone have a recipe for this yummy cake from Trinnidad. I used to buy it in London all the time but I dont think there is a big enough Carribean (sp) community here to find any :(

cookessentials, Jun 8, 4:39am
http://www.google.co.nz/#hl=en&source=hp&q=TRINIDAD+
BLACK+CAKE&aq=f&aqi=g-s1g7g-m2&aql=&oq=&
gs_rfai=&fp=6883179d3dadcf0

antoniab, Jun 8, 4:40am
Yummy just found that one too thanks :) Geez 2 bottles of Rum though, might have to wait until payday!

cookessentials, Jun 8, 4:42am
OMG, I just looked at this cake and it looks so delicious and moist.

Trinidad is a Christmas tradition. Made predominantly of alcohol drenched prunes, currants and raisins.

It is DEFINATELY for Christmas with all that alcohol! !

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 all-purpose flour (use 1/2 cassava flour + 1/2 lb rice flour for gluten-free)
4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg

Fruit Base:

1 lb pitted prunes
1 lb raisins
1 lb currants
1 bottle cherry brandy
1 bottle rum and/or Bailey’s
2 tbsp Angostura bitters

Browning:

1 lb brown sugar
1/2 cup boiling hot water

Have on Hand:

1 more bottle of rum

cookessentials, Jun 8, 4:43am
from http://www.trinigourmet.com/index. php/trinidad-black-cake/

cookessentials, Jun 8, 4:44am
You’ll notice the insane amount of liquour that goes into this dessert. Not only does that make the final cake unbelievably moist it also renders it virtually ageless. My aunt makes a batch of these at xmas time, keeps them in ‘old time cake tins’ and even in July and August we are still eating the remnants!

nauru, Jun 8, 5:53am
We lived in Trinidad many years ago and sampled this cake often, It's very rich, very potent and very nice. The authentic way to make the cake is to start to soak the dried fruit in January and feed it with alcohol for the rest of the year before baking it for Christmas. I have a recipe somewhere given to me by my Trinidadian neighbour, if you want it let me know and I will look it out for you.

dollmakernz, Jun 8, 7:21am
That sounds soooooo good! & sooooo expensive! How big a cake does it make?

antoniab, Jun 8, 7:39am
Definitly, I would love it if you could get your hands on it - a good friend of mine in London was from Trini and he said that was how his Aunties used to do it too but I never got the recipe off him :(
Oh and in that recipe it says she just uses a 12'' springform tin but to have another handy incase of over flow :)

cookessentials, Jun 8, 7:47am
The recipe says "tins" but does not mention how many or the sizes, but looking at the ingredients, I would say a pretty big tin. I also see that you cook at 250F which is 125C, so long slow cooking.

antoniab, Jun 8, 9:35pm
As above if you read further down the forum someone has asked the same Q and she says 12'' :)

cookessentials, Jul 19, 11:50am
Gosh a 12 inch tin is pretty big - around 31cm. The largest tin we can get is 30cm.