Jamaican Black Rum Fruit Cake

Ingredients 

Mix Fruit Ingredients

• 330 g (1.39 cups) Dry fruits
• 236.59 ml (1 cups) White Rum
• 354.88 ml (1.5 cups) Red label wine

Fruit Cake Ingredients

• 384 g (3.00 cups) Plain flour
• 200 g (0.88 cups) Unsalted butter
• 200 g (0.91 cups) Soft dark brown sugar
• 8 Eggs
• 1 tsp Baking powder
• 1 tsp Grated nutmeg
• 1 tsp Cinnamon powder
• ½ tbsp Allspice
• ½ tbsp Vanilla extract
• ½ tbsp Rose water
• 5 tbsp Browning sauce
• 5 tbsp Molasses Optional (Use more browning sauce to replace)
• 59.15 ml (0.25 cups) White rum
• ½ tbsp Lemon juice
• Lemon zest from a whole lemon

Instructions

Fruit Mix Instructions

• Add the mixed fruit to a glass kitchen container.
• Pour the rum and the wine over the mixed fruit. Cover and leave to soak for at least a week.
• On baking day, pour the soaked fruit to a blender and pulse until you know longer recognised the fruit but not until smooth. Set aside.

Fruit Cake Instructions

• Get the molasses runnier by heating it with half the white rum for about a minute on high heat. Stir continuously! Set aside to cool whilst you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
• Grease a 10-inch round cake tin and line it with a layer of baking parchment paper.
• Preheat the oven to 150°C fan or 325 °F or gas mark 3.
• In a kitchen bowl, sift the plain flour and the baking powder. Add and combine the ground allspice, cinnamon powder and freshly grated nutmeg. Set aside.
• In a mixing bowl, whisk together the butter and dark brown sugars until creamy.
• Whisk together the eggs, lemon juice and lemon zest. Add it a little at a time to the cream butter and sugar.
• Add the flour mixture a little at a time. Fold in using a wooden spoon. Don’t overwork the batter or the fruit cake will turn out dense.
• Add the blended fruit, vanilla extract, rose water, browning sauce, molasses and the rest of the rum. Combine without overworking the batter.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared baking pan. Bake in the preheated oven for about 2 hours, until a toothpick in the middle comes out clean.
• Remove from oven and place on a rack to cool. Once cool, spray the cake with 1/4 cup/100ml of rum and wine. The ratio of rum to wine is up to you.

Notes

1. You don’t have to use molasses like I did, you can use use the browning sauce. The more browning sauce you use the darker the cake will turn out.
2. You can make your own browning sauce by caramelising brown sugar.
3. If rose water isn’t available, you could make the cake without it. It won’t make a great difference to the flavour

(jamaicanfoodsandrecipes)