This is an easier version of a traditional Christmas cake made in my family. The more traditional - more of a pudding cake takes hours to bake at low temperature and requires a lot of manual labor as the fruits must be fully incorporated into the batter gently by hand as it is incredibly thick. That cake requires a lot of patience and I prefer that recipe for petits fours, which I find taste better than chocolate truffles. I leave those to my mother and my sister Dawn. As Christmas cakes are full of wine, they last a long time so I just wait for my package from Miami, make myself a cappuccino sit back, relax and pop one of those little bits of temptation into my mouth. Ah! Love Jamaican Christmas desserts. This recipe is more of a traditional cake and is incredibly rich with a buttery port taste that makes me think of balmy breezes, palm trees and my favorites, pirates.
At one of my dear friend’s home and fellow Caribbean food blogger, Charmaine Lord, to create our holiday fruit cake.
Preparation: 20 minutes || Baking: 1 hour || Serves: 10 - 12
14 oz. unsalted butter
2 ½ cups brown sugar
6 eggs
2 ½ cups flour, sifted
4 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
½ tsp nutmeg
1 cup port wine, drained from fruit – add if necessary to make 1 cup
3 cups port wine soaked dried fruit, drained (raisins, cherries, cranberries), ground
zest of 2 orange and 2 limes
Adjust the rack one-third up from the bottom of the oven. Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Butter a 9 x 2 ½ - inch cake tin, dusting it lightly with fine dry breadcrumbs.
In a large bowl and using an electric mixer beat the butter to soften. Add the sugar and beat for another 2 to 3 minutes until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping the bowl as necessary with a rubber spatula to keep mixture smooth. Sift together flour and baking powder, then add salt. Sprinkle ½ cup of flour over the ground up fruit and fold in gently then set aside. Add the rest of the flour into the cake in three additions, alternating with the port. Do not over mix. Then by hand using a rubber spatula, incorporate the dried fruit and zest carefully into the batter. Turn the batter into the prepared pan and level top by rotating pan briskly back and forth.
Bake for an hour in the middle of the oven. Remove the cake from the oven and with a small metal spatula go around the sides. Cover the tin with a cake plate and invert. Bathe immediately with warm Citrus Syrup. Let cool and serve each slice with Vanilla Ice Cream or with Crème Anglaise.
Mini teaser of the cake making recipe :
full video found on my IGTV @jacquiesfoodfortalk and Charmaine’s @charmaine_lord
Citrus Syrup
Makes approximately ½ cup of syrup
Preparation: 15 minutes
Juice of 1 lemons ½ -1 cup sugar (amount of juice = amount of sugar)
Juice of 1 orange 1tsp Limoncello (or other citrus liquor), if desired
Juice of 2 limes
Place all ingredients except the Limoncello in a small saucepan. Cook at low heat, stirring frequently until the sugar dissolves. Cook for another 5 minutes until the syrup thickens. Take off the heat and add the Limoncello, or for example Grand Marnier, if desired. Pour immediately approximately ¼ of the syrup over the top of the hot cake, then turn it over on a plate, and pour more syrup over the bottom and sides. Any remaining syrup can be refrigerated for up to about a week.
Note: If you do not have dried fruit casually soaking in your home, as you are probably not Jamaican nor for that matter West Indian, you could substitute the fruit with the bottled fruit – mincemeat - used for mince pies found in the supermarket. Then you will need 1 cup of port. Or you can quickly boil, in port, approximately 3 – 4 cups of dried fruit (raisins, cherries, prunes), until fruit is softened.
