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Caribbean Remembrances: Recipes
Contributed by Members of the Community
Guyanese Black Cake
Contributor: Stanwyck
Cromwell
Country: Guyana
Ingredients:
1 ½ lbs mixed dried fruit
2 oz mixed
candied citrus peel
1 tsp mixed spiced
¼ lb chopped peanuts
1 cup
brown sugar
½ lb margarine or butter
6 eggs
¼ tsp baking
powder
1 cup flour
½ bottle (about 2 cups) wine & rum
2 cups
sugar for caramel
Directions:
Grind or chop dry fruits, candied citrus
peel and peanuts. For caramel: heat sugar in heavy sauce pan, when melted
add wine. Simmer until dark color is obtained, set aside. Mix the wine and
rum and pour over fruits. Leave to soak for at least a day, but as long as
three months. The longer the fruit is left to soak, the better. Grease and
doubly line an 8 inch cake pan with wax paper. Cream sugar and butter (or
margarine). Add eggs one at a time. Add massianted fruits and stir well.
Add enough caramel to make it as dark as desired. Sift flour, baking
powder and spice together. Add small amounts at a time and fold in. Mix to
a soft dropping consistency using wine or rum. Pour the mixture in the
prepared pan and bake in a slow oven, 300º, for two hours on middle shelf.
Pour wine and rum over cake immediately after cake is baked. Repeat three
or four times.
Personal Passage:
As far back as I could remember,
black cake was always associated with weddings and Christmas, mostly
Christmas. As a young boy growing up in Guyana, Christmas was the ultimate
season for black cake. My mother and sisters would grind up raisins,
dates, and other citrus fruits, and add wine to preserve and strengthen
the potency of the ground fruits. The puréed mixture of fruits and wine
was placed in a jar to cure for a couple of months. A couple of weeks
prior to Christmas, the fermented fruits would then be mixed with flour
and other ingredients to create a batter, which when baked, took on the
color of dark brown, almost black. The cake would then be soaked with rum
to preserve it and keep it moist. The funny thing about black cake is that
if you eat too much it could make you a bit woozy. As kids we were not
allowed any alcoholic consumption, but we had access to numerous slices of
Guyanese Black Cake. Now you try to figure it out if you
can!
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Last update: February 22, 2007