Caribbean Black Cake

the Christmas cake of the West Indies: dried fruit soaked in rum and port for months, ground to a paste, and baked with burnt sugar into a dense, near-black, spirit-soaked crumb

Origin: Trinidad and Tobago

From the journey of Sugar Cane.

Black cake is the British plum pudding remade on a sugar island, and every alteration tells you something about where it is. The dried fruit and the spicing are inherited from the English Christmas cake that the planters brought; what the Caribbean added was its own two products, rum and burnt sugar, and the addition transformed the thing entirely. The fruit is not merely soaked but macerated in dark rum and port for months and often for a year, topped up as it drinks, and in the most serious households a jar is kept permanently going, so that this year's cake is made from fruit laid down two Christmases ago. The soaked fruit is then ground or blended to a coarse dark paste rather than left in pieces, which is what gives the cake its uniform, almost puddinglike density. And the colour, which is genuinely near-black rather than merely brown, comes from browning, cane sugar burnt past caramel to the point of smoking. The finished cake is fed with more rum as it cools and again over the following weeks. It appears at Christmas, at weddings, and at christenings across Trinidad, Guyana, Jamaica, and Barbados, and it keeps for a year or more, which given how much spirit is in it is not surprising.

Ingredients

Soaked Fruit

500 g raisins
300 g prunes, stoned
250 g currants
150 g mixed candied peel
100 g glacé cherries
350 ml dark Caribbean rum, plus more for feeding
250 ml ruby port or cherry brandy

Cake

250 g unsalted butter, softened
250 g dark brown sugar
5 whole eggs
250 g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
0.5 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
4 tbsp browning (burnt sugar), or to taste
1 whole lime, zest finely grated
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 pinch fine salt

Method

Put all the dried fruit into a large sterilised jar, pour over the rum and port, seal, and leave in a cool dark cupboard for at least a month and preferably six, shaking occasionally and topping up with rum whenever the fruit rises above the liquid.
When you are ready to bake, tip the fruit and all its liquid into a food processor and blend to a coarse, dark, jammy paste with some texture still in it. Heat the oven to 150°C (130°C fan) and line a 23 cm round tin with a double thickness of parchment, standing well above the rim.
Cream the butter and dark brown sugar together until light, then beat in the eggs one at a time, adding a spoonful of the flour with each to stop it curdling.
Fold in the remaining flour sifted with the baking powder, spices, and salt, then the fruit paste, the lime zest, the vanilla, and the browning. Add the browning a tablespoon at a time until the batter is genuinely dark, the colour of wet earth.
Turn into the tin, level the surface, and bake for about 2 hours, until a skewer comes out with a few moist crumbs. Whilst still hot, spoon over 4 tbsp of rum, and cool completely in the tin. Wrap in parchment and foil and feed with a further 2 tbsp of rum weekly for a month.

Notes

Every household differs on the fruit: prunes and raisins are the backbone, and currants, candied peel, cherries, dates, and dried figs go in according to taste, but the total weight matters more than the proportions. Cherry brandy in place of the port is very common in Trinidad and Guyana and gives a sweeter, more perfumed cake. Home-made browning is much better than bottled, and the recipe for it stands alongside this one. For a version without alcohol, macerate the fruit in strong black tea with orange juice and a little grape juice for a fortnight, and accept that it will not keep. The cake is traditionally covered in almond paste and royal icing for a wedding and left plain for Christmas, and it is always cut in small pieces, since it is extremely rich.

The Gastrographer

Name: Caribbean Black Cake
Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 2 h
Yield: 20
Cuisine: Trinidad and Tobago
Ingredients: 500 g raisins; 300 g prunes, stoned; 250 g currants; 150 g mixed candied peel; 100 g glacé cherries; 350 ml dark Caribbean rum, plus more for feeding; 250 ml ruby port or cherry brandy; 250 g unsalted butter, softened; 250 g dark brown sugar; 5 whole eggs; 250 g plain flour; 1 tsp baking powder; 2 tsp mixed spice; 1 tsp ground cinnamon; 0.5 tsp freshly grated nutmeg; 4 tbsp browning (burnt sugar), or to taste; 1 whole lime, zest finely grated; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 1 pinch fine salt

Mapping Culinary History

To explore — select an ingredient below.

To explore — select an ingredient below · click any location dot on the map for recipes and stories · browse the information panel on the right · trace the full journey on the timeline.

Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control