Guyanese Black Cake
This will be a quick post because I am getting my house in order for Christmas. There’s still vacuuming, laundry, polishing and food preparations to be done! Oy..I’ve made myself tired just thinking about it. I’ve had many request for this recipe and it’s finally here! It’s a bit late but I always say better late than never. Black Cake is a staple at Christmas in Guyana and many countries in the Caribbean. This is also always served at a Guyanese wedding, always. It’s a dense cake that’s made of dried fruits, nuts and rum. This cake is soaked in rum weekly and will keep for up to a month, as long as you keep adding alcohol. This will not only preserve the cake, but also keep it moist. 
My mom make a mean Black Cake and have been doing so for as long as I can remember. She’s bringing a pan from New York City all the way to Atlanta for me! I can hardly wait for her to get her tomorrow morning. As I leave you, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a wonderful and prosperous New Year. Enjoy!
Guyanese Black Cake
For the Fruits
you will need:
1 lb currants
1 lb prunes
1 lb raisins
1/4 lb candied cherries
1/4 lb mix citrus peel
1/4 lb almond or peanuts (optional)
rum or port wine
Wash and grind all ingredients. This can done with a food mill or food processor. Mix in about 2 cups of rum or port wine and allow to sit for at least 2 weeks. Store in an airtight container.
1 lb or 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 lb or 4 sticks unsalted butter
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
10 eggs
*caramel or cake coloring(about 1/4 cup)
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp mace
1 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp almond essence
1/4 cup rum
1 bottle of Dark Rum
Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Grease and line two 9 inch baking pans with parchment paper; set aside. In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, mace and cloves; set aside. Place butter and sugar in a large bowl and mix until fluffy and light in color. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition to make sure egg is incorporated. Please don’t rush this step, adding the eggs too soon or too many at one time can cause the mixture to curdle or separate. Add vanilla extract and almond extract to mixture, mix until incorporated. Add fruit mix to wet ingredients and mix well. Add flour to wet ingredients, mix until smooth. Add caramel to achieve desired color and stir in rum.
Divide equally between the 2 pans. Bake for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, test by sticking a toothpick in the center, cake is done if toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and pour about 1 cup of rum on each pan of cake. When the cake absorbs the rum, add more rum two more times. Add rum weekly. Enjoy!
*Recipe updated 11/21/2016
*To make your own caramel, add about 1/2 cup of sugar to a pan over medium heat. Sugar will melt and darken, added about 2 tbsp of red wine and cook until a deep dark color and it has reduces and thickens.
Hi Jehan
I’m originally from Guyana but never learned how to prepare these dishes that I enjoy eating occasionally.. looking forward to cooking for my friends and family.. I have full confidence as you as my teacher..
Sincerely
Joy
Live your recipes and show!! Hv been following u on these awesome dishes! Any update to the black cake recipe available? I Dem to only come up with the 2011 version and it appears some instructions hv been left out, I do scroll to find it in comments but ws just wonder if u did update and I just didn’t find it. Thanks for an awesome job!
Mela, thank you, it’s just recently updated a few weeks ago.
Any suggestions on how to make the icing for the black cake?
Nuala, the icing is simply a royal icing. Any royal icing recipe will work.
Hi Jehan. How many cups of fruit would you say is in the mixture?
Hi, I can’t say as it wasn’t measured by cups.
Pingback: Jamaican Black Cake Recipes Tips From Chef Ricardo Cooking Best ONE ***** | Recipe Idea
A few points about your recipe. The first thing you have to let your readers know is that when baking a kitchen scale is needed.
No averaging when baking a cake. With the amount of fruit, butter and flour used, why 10 eggs and not 12?
Lots of liquid is needed when the soaked fruits is combined the butter and eggs. If the mixture is too tight before adding the flour, then you will have a stiff cake like the one you baked there, which some people in Guyana would call a “dough boy”.
Mixing of the batter is not easily explained in a recipe.
Hi Reginald, using a kitchen scale does produce more accurate results but the average cook does not own a kitchen scale and most likely won’t just to make one recipe. The average cook owns mixing cups and the ingredients were weighed first and then measured. The fruits are soaked with enough liquid and if there isn’t enough liquid in the fruits that is easily corrected by adding the liquid to the batter. It doesn’t matter if the liquid is in the fruits or added directly to the cake as long as the cake has enough liquid and is the right consistency. As you can see from the video the mixture was not stiff before adding the flour but thank you for your opinions.
Hi my dear, you are doing a very great job.God Bless you with this cooking talent.Love & God Bless.
Thank you so much!
Do you put all the blended fruits (3 1/2 lbs) in the cake? Thank you for sharing your recipes.
Yes it all goes into the cake. Thank you!
Absolutely love this recipe. I tried it with high wine and oohhh boy. High wine in black cake is not for the faint of heart, but taste real good ????.
Thank you! I definitely wouldn’t recommend using high wine. A gold rum would be better.
Hi Jehan, thank you for the wonderful recipe! I was wondering if it would change the taste of the cake if I didn’t use citrus peel and candied cherries? I have some family allergic to it, and would love some recommendations to make it taste close to the original.
Thank you!
Hi you can leave both out and it will still be fantastic.
Thank you very happy with my cake every year all because I follow your recipe