There are many Jamaican Christmas traditions that I love, but one that I just can’t live without is the Jamaican Fruit Cake. This fruit cake is a dense cake filled with mixed fruits, currants and a lot of alcohol. I bake this fruit cake every year. When you smell this rich cake, you know it is Christmas.
This fruit cake is best served with Sorrel. It is a combination that is truly Jamaican. You, however, can serve it with Hot Cocoa, coffee, or any other beverage you desire.
This is a recipe is live and die by, it always produces excellent results. Go ahead, try it, it will become one of your Christmas traditions:
Ingredients
1 lb. Butter
3/4 lb. dark Sugar
10 Eggs
1 teaspoon Almond Essence
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 teaspoon Rose Water (Optional)
1 lb. Flour
3 teaspoons Baking Powder
2 tablespoons Mixed Spice (NOT Allspice!)
2 tablespoons Cinnamon
Browning (Optional)
Sherry
Fruits
2 lbs. Raisins
1/2 lb. Prunes
1/2 lb. Dates
1 lb. Mixed Fruit.
Red wine to soak fruits
6 tablespoons Jamaican white rum
1/2 lb. Cherries–You can choose whether to soak the cherries. If you want the cherries to add color to your cake, do not soak, add at the time of baking.
Soak fruits in advance for as long as possible (up to a year) to give the cake more texture and body. But if you need it quickly, you can still get a nice cake the same day that it is soaked!
Method
Preheat oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Line the sides and bottom of two 9″ baking pans with a double layer of greaseproof paper and set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs 2 at the time creaming after each addition. After adding the eggs, you will have to move the butter, sugar and egg mixture to a larger bowl and prepare to do the balance of the recipe by hand.
- Add vanilla and almond essence to the butter and sugar mixture.
- If you use browning, pour a very small amount in mixture and stir. Note: Be very careful with browning! It makes your cake too dark!
- Add baking powder, mixed spice and cinnamon to the flour.
- Pour butter and egg mixture into a larger bowl.
- Add flour mixture to butter mixture by folding it in.
- Continuously add flour mixture to butter mixture.
- Grind soaked fruits with a blender or food processor, add to flour/egg mixture and thoroughly fold it in.
- Add cut-up cherries to mixture. Leave a few cherries for decorating top of cake.
- Pour mixture in the 2 lined 9″ baking pans.
- Bake in pre-heated oven until done. Use a knife to test readiness, etc. The knife should come out clean.
- Stick cakes all over with a toothpick. Sprinkle sherry or wine over hot baked cakes.
This cake is very versatile. It can be iced with a simple vanilla icing, cream cheese icing, or any other icing you desire.
Hope you enjoyed 🙂
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