Trinidad Black Cake Recipe: Soaking, Browning and More - We Trini Food (2024)

Black cake or fruit cake is the most popular Trinidad Christmas dessert. It is dark, boozy and filled with wonderful dried fruits and flavor.

In this post, you’ll find everything for soaking the fruits, making browning and bringing the cake together. Feel free to adjust the recipe with your preferred alcohol and fruits and try my sponge cake recipe too.

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Ingredients and substitutions

For this recipe, I used:

• dried fruits: I used raisins, prunes, cherries and candied mixed peel (get on Amazon). Feel free to try seedless dried cranberries, sultanas, and currants.
• alcohol: I used Manischewitz blackberry wine and El Dorado rum here but cherry brandy or puncheon rum are much more popular.
• brown sugar: needed to make browning and for the cake itself. You can use store-bought browning as well.
• butter
• flour: all purpose flour is ideal here. Cake flour is not recommended since it may cause the cake to raise too much.
• baking powder
• eggs
• citrus zest: lime or lemon zest will work here. This helps to remove the fresh taste from the eggs.
• molasses: although not common, molasses gives the cake a beautiful, rich depth of flavor
• flavorings: I use vanilla essence and spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. You can also try almond, mixed, and even cocoa essence in place of the vanilla.

Instructional video

How to make Trinidad black cake step-by-step

Soak the fruits with alcohol

The fruits are often soaked weeks and months before making the cake. But it is possible to make the cake without soaking. Here, I’ll walk you through both ways.

A. Soaking months ahead

Step 1A: Add the fruits to a clean, sterilized container with a proper lid. Pour enough alcohol to completely cover the fruits (more is better). Cover the container and place in a cool, dark cupboard away from light and heat. Every few months, add more alcohol to cover the fruits.

Here’s a quick tiktok on how I soak the fruits (I didn’t add the rum at this time, but I did add it in after).

B. Same day baking

Step 1B: Add the fruits and alcohol to a blender or food processor. Blend to a chunky consistency. Place the mixture in a small pot on low heat and allow to simmer for 5 minutes. Remove and set aside to cool. Both blending and heating helps to speed up the alcohol absorption by the fruits.

Make browning

Step 2: Place a small pot on low heat and add 1 cup of brown sugar. Stir occasionally to distribute the heat as the sugar starts to melt and caramelize.

Step 3: When the melted sugar becomes frothy and a dark brown color, add half cup of boiling water quickly (carefully!) to stop the caramelization process. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

Make the cake

Step 4: Remove the butter from the fridge and leave until it becomes room temperature. If you made browning from scratch, stir in the molasses to make it easier to use later on.

Step 5: Preheat the oven at 250°F.

Step 6: Add the room temperature butter and sugar to your stand mixer and cream for about 8 to 10 minutes on the medium setting until the mixture becomes light, fluffy and smooth.

Step 7: Add the eggs one at a time, incorporating fully, before adding the next.

Step 8: Pour in the essence and citrus zest and mix to combine.

Step 9: In a separate bowl, add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon powder and nutmeg. Mix properly to evenly distribute the baking powder and spices.

Step 10: Add the dry ingredients a little at a time to the batter and mix slowly to fully incorporate.

Step 11: Pour in the browning and molasses mixture made in Steps 2 to 4. This will give the batter a beautiful brown color.

See Also

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Step 12: Add 6 cups of the soaked fruits and alcohol to a blender or food processor and blend until it has a nice chunky texture. I like the chunkiness because you can see and taste the fruit pieces in the finished cake. If you don’t like this, then by all means blend until the fruits have a smooth consistency.

Step 13: Add the blended fruits to the cake batter. My stand mixer is only a 3.5 quart, so I transferred the batter over to a larger bowl to mix in the fruits. Be sure to stir thoroughly so the fruits spread out within the batter.

Step 14: Butter and flour your cake pans. Two 10-inch cake pans are needed for this recipe. I actually have two 9-inch cake pans so I used a third cake pan which was 7-inches wide. I generally make thinner fruit cakes (under two inches) but you can make yours thicker if you like.

Step 15: Bake for 1 hour at the temperature of 250°F.

Step 16: Lower the heat and bake for 1.5 to 2 hours at 225°F. My thinner cakes generally cook within the one and a half hours but thicker ones will take the full two hours.

Step 17: Check the cakes after the time for doneness. Do this by sticking a bamboo skewer in the center of the cake. If the skewer comes out clean, then check other spots on the cake. If it still comes out clean, your cake is done! But, if there is batter on the skewer, add it back to your oven and bake for 10 more minutes before checking again with the skewer.

Step 18: When the cakes are all done, remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Soak the cakes

Step 19: With the cakes cooled, poke several holes in them. I use a bamboo skewer but you can use a fork.

Step 20: Brush the cakes with your preferred alcohol. I usually mix 1/4 cup of blackberry wine and 1/4 cup of dark rum and brush that onto the cakes, which soak the alcohol up. Soaking preserve the cake during the season. Refrigerating and freezing the cake will preserve the cake for much longer.

Step 21: Serve a slice of the cake with other Trinidad Christmas food like sponge cake, pineapple upside down cake, sweet bread, and more.

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