23 Dec Recipe: Christmas dessert – Fruit Cake

When you think of a Trinidadian Christmas dessert there is only one contender – The celebrated Black Cake or Fruit Cake depending on your persuasion.

Here is a recipe from our friends at www.angostura.com that includes their Black Label Rum, Fernandes Cherry Brandy and of course the star of the show, Angostura aromatic bitters.

If there is a recipe to try, then this certainly is it!

Ingredients

• 1 2/3 cup Black Label® rum
• 1 2/3 cup Fernandes® cherry brandy
• 2 tbsp Angostura® aromatic bitters
• 450g (1 lb) raisins
• 450g (1lb) currants
• 225g (½ lb) prunes
• 125g (¼ lb) mixed peel
• 450g (1 lb) butter
• 450g (1lb) brown sugar
• 6 large eggs
• 450g (1lb) flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp each cinnamon and allspice
• 125g (¼ lb) cherries quartered
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• ¾ cup browning-optional

Method

Combine rum, cherry brandy and bitters. Dice all fruit except cherries. Add fruit to rum mixture and leave to infuse over a week, if possible. Pre-heat oven to 300ºF.Cream butter and sugar until light and sugar is dissolved. Add eggs, one at a time beating after each addition Sift together, flour, baking powder, cinnamon and allspice.Drain fruit and reserve liquid. Add fruit and cherries to butter mixture. Stir. Fold flour into fruit and butter mixture. Add vanilla and browning (if using) and mix well. Butter and line two 9”- cake pans with waxed paper.Spoon cake batter equally into prepared pans. Bake for 2 to 2½ hours. Pour reserved liquid over cakes when baked. Cool in pans then remove to cake rack.