Guyanese Black Cake

• 1 lb of butter 2 cups
• 1 lb of granulated sugar 2 cups
• 12 ounces of flour about 2 ½ cups
• 4 lbs soaked and blended fruits 8 cups
• 9 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder optional
• 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of ground clove
• 1 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon of orange zest
• 4 to 6 tablespoons of burnt sugar
• ½ cup of red wine e.g. Porto
• 3 tablespoon of dark rum
• Cooking spray

Special Equipment

• Parchment Paper
• Aluminum Foil
• 2 8×3 inch pans

• Cream butter and sifted sugar until most of the sugar crystals dissolve
• Add eggs to creamed butter and sugar one at a time until all of the eggs are fully incorporated into the mixture
• After the eggs have been added, add fruits to butter, sugar and eggs mixture (one cup at a time) and mix together until all of the fruits have been completely mixed into the batter
• Next add the wine and orange zest to batter
• Then add burnt sugar, one tablespoon at a time until your batter is the desired color
• Sift together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground nutmeg
• Add flour to the batter one cup at a time and incorporating the flour into the batter using a figure 8 motion
• Preheat oven to 300°F
• Grease baking pans with cooking spray, then line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper
• Divide batter equally among the baking pans
• Wrap the bottom of the baking pan with aluminum foil
• Place cake on the middle rack in the oven and bake for 75 to 90 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the black cake comes out smooth
• Once cake is fully cooked, remove from the oven and brush each cake with 1 to 1 ½ tablespoons of rum, while cake is still hot. Feel free to add more rum if you like, but not too much or the cake will be soggy
• Cover with a kitchen towel and let cool
• Allow cake to cool completely, then remove from baking pans
• Store cake in a covered container. Depending on how long you keep the cake for, you may add more rum once or twice a week so that it doesn’t dry out