🇹🇹 Trinidadian Cuisine

Black Cake

Caribbean Rum Fruit Cake

Prep Time 30 min plus months soaking

Servings 16

Difficulty Hard

Calories 412 kcal

An intensely dark, dense, boozy fruit cake made with dried fruits soaked in rum and cherry brandy for months, browning (burnt sugar), and warm spices. The quintessential Trinidadian Christmas cake.

Ingredients

2 lbs mixed dried fruits (prunes, currants, raisins, cherries)
2 cups dark rum
1 cup cherry brandy
2 cups flour
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup butter
6 eggs
2 tbsp browning (burnt sugar)
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond essence
1 tsp baking powder

Instructions

1 Soak dried fruits in rum and cherry brandy for at least 2 weeks, preferably months. Blend into a thick paste.
2 Cream butter and sugar until light. Add eggs one at a time.
3 Fold in flour, baking powder, mixed spice, vanilla, and almond essence.
4 Add fruit paste and browning to batter, mixing until uniformly dark.
5 Pour into lined cake pans and bake at 300F for 2 hours. When cool, pour additional rum over the cake. Wrap tightly and store.

Did You Know?

Some Trinidadian families start soaking their fruits in January for the following Christmas. A well-made black cake can last for years if kept sealed and rum-fed.