Recipe from Marva Adams-Miller
Adapted by Ramin Ganeshram
Updated Nov. 27, 2023
- Total Time
- About 14 hours
- Prep Time
- 20 minutes
- Cook Time
- 2½ hours, plus at least 11 hours’ resting and cooling
- Rating
- 4(327)
- Notes
- Read community notes
Marva Adams-Miller has been perfecting her Caribbean black cake recipe for three decades and sells the cakes from her home in Brooklyn, N.Y. She adapts them based on customer preferences. Some years she has used Baileys Irish Cream or other liqueurs, but this version with rum is most common throughout the Caribbean islands. The cake is an evolution of the Christmas fruitcakes that English colonizers and Irish indentured servants brought to the Caribbean in the 17th century. The recipe was adapted to local ingredients, using grated tonka beans, a flavoring that tastes like a mix of pear, vanilla and almond instead of vanilla extract. Later the tonka was replaced with commercially made mixed essence, a flavoring that has a similar aroma and flavor. Rum was substituted for whisky or brandy. Burnt sugar syrup (also called browning) is integral to enhancing the deep, plummy flavor and appearance of this cake. The candied and dried fruits are traditionally soaked months in advance of baking — the longer the better, even up to one year — but, in a pinch, they can be heated with the alcohol and left to steep overnight before using. —Ramin Ganeshram
Featured in: The Best Black Cake, a West Indian Delight, Starts at Home
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Ingredients
Yield:Two 9-inch cakes
- ⅔pound/300 grams raisins
- ⅔pound/300 grams currants
- ⅔pound/300 grams pitted prunes
- ⅔pound/300 grams sultanas
- ⅓cup candied red cherries
- ⅓cup mixed peel
- 2¼cups/500 milliliters white rum
- 2¼cups/500 milliliters port wine
- Baking spray
- 3½cups/454 grams all-purpose flour
- 1tablespoon baking powder
- 1teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1teaspoon grated nutmeg (preferably freshly grated)
- 1pound/452 grams unsalted butter (4 sticks), at room temperature
- 1pound/454 grams dark brown sugar
- 12large eggs
- 1lemon, zested
- 3teaspoons mixed essence
- Dash of Angostura bitters
- ¼cup burnt sugar syrup or browning (or as desired; see Tip)
- ¼cup dark rum, for basting the finished cakes, plus more as needed
For the Fruit Mixture
For the Cake
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Preparation
Step
1
Marinate the fruits: One month before making the cake, combine the raisins, currants, prunes, sultanas, cherries, mixed peel, rum and port in a large bowl and mix well. Using a food processor, working in batches of 2 cups at a time, roughly purée the fruits with about ½ cup of the soaking liquor from the bottom of the bowl.
Step
2
Place the puréed fruits in a wide-mouthed gallon jar or plastic container along with all the remaining soaking liquor and cover. Let sit at room temperature for at least 1 month (and up to one year). If you don’t have time to soak them far in advance, you can prepare the fruits quickly by placing the puréed fruit and liquor in a large pot over medium-low heat, mixing often. Heat until steam begins to rise from the surface of the pot then cover and turn it off. Allow to sit at room temperature at least 8 hours (but the longer, the better).
Step
3
Make the cake: Heat oven to 325 degrees. Spray two round, 9-inch cake pans with baking spray. Line the bottom of each pan with parchment and spray again. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg; set aside.
Step
4
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar together over medium-high until sugar has dissolved and mixture is smooth and creamy. Beat in eggs one at a time, then add the lemon zest, mixed essence and bitters; mix well.
Step
5
Using a slotted spoon, scoop the fruit from the jar (it should equal about 8 cups) and add it to the batter. Mix for 1 minute or until fully incorporated. (You will have leftover liquor from soaking the fruit, which can be used to start a new batch of marinated fruit.) Add the flour mixture in four parts and mix well between additions. Begin mixing on low speed to combine the ingredients, then turn the mixer to medium-high and mix until combined. (If your mixer is not large enough, you may transfer the mixture to a large bowl and add the flour by hand, beating well with a wooden spoon after each addition.) Add the burnt sugar syrup and mix well. The cake will look dark brown but not black. It will darken further in the oven.
Step
6
Pour the batter equally between the prepared cake pans and bake at 325 degrees for 2 hours or until a cake tester inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean (no need to rotate the cakes). Remove hot cakes from the oven and immediately brush each with 2 tablespoons of the dark rum.
Step
7
Allow the cakes to cool slightly before turning them out onto a baking rack to cool completely (about 3 hours). Wrap cakes well in plastic or in an airtight container and let rest for 3 days before serving. Cake will keep, stored at room temperature, for up to 3 weeks. Unwrap once a week and brush or spray the cake with rum and rewrap.
Tip
- Burnt sugar syrup, also simply labeled “browning,” is black or nearly black syrup made from caramelizing sugar. Used for darkening the cake, it has a slightly bitter taste that cooks off during baking. As some of the commercial syrups are darker than others, you will want to add this syrup by the tablespoonful, mixing well after each addition, to control the hue. For a traditional cake, you’ll want to add enough for the batter to be a deep chocolate color, which will darken further in the oven. Burnt sugar syrup or browning is available in Caribbean markets or online grocers.
Ratings
4
out of 5
327
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Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Sarah
Is there a recipe to make the burnt sugar syrup rather than buying? I've burnt lots of caramel accidentally over the years so would prefer to use that skill for once if possible.
JG
And what does “mixed essence” mean?
RZ
It's basically a flavoring you can buy by the bottle. Google "Caribbean mixed essence" and pick whichever bottle looks the prettiest if you don't have a Caribbean market nearby.
HNR
Yes—black/Concord grape, currant, or cranberry juice (or a mix)—not juice drink. Because rum balances the sweet in the fruit mix, you may reduce the sugar in your cake recipe by up to a quarter and substitute half the baking powder with baking soda to work with the juice’s acidity. Half my family avoids alcohol, so this is how we did it for them. It’s a dense, delicious cake that’s hard to mess up. Hope this helps.
Melissa in Miami
I have roughly 2 gallons of my Miami backyard’s starfruit, mulberries, and sapodilla, with store-bought raisins soaking in rum for over a year. I was creatively preserving the harvest, and now I will create a version of this recipe! Thanks for the inspo!
HNR
YES! I’ve used both all Bob’s gf flour or 2-Bob’s gf to 1-superfine almond flour. As @howdoc states, you will need to add more liquid—I do an extra egg (large) and 1/4 cup milk as the egg helps bind the cake. I’ve also added 1tsp tapioca or cassava flour to the cake recipe to help with binding. One year I used Bob’s gf vanilla cake mix and added the extra egg, tapioca, bitters and essence—it worked fine!
Linnea
From the description above the recipe, just scroll up: "mixed essence, a flavoring that tastes like a mix of pear, vanilla and almond"
Denise
I have been making black cake for years without burnt sugar syrup and the cake comes out lovely.
Hillary
candied lemon and orange peels. You can make it or buy it.
HNR
Just caramelize as you know how to. Traditionally, we caramelize brown (or white) sugar in a little oil stovetop—avoid nonstick cookware.
Lili
Question: can I use blackstrap molasses instead of burnt sugar syrup?
Beverly
Never heard of it and I make black cake every Christmas. I usually put vanilla essence and sometimes almond extract as well.
Will D
The batter is delicious. However, there is enough of it for more than 4 standard 9” pans. Judging by the size of the slice in the picture, I’m thinking a more specialized pan was intended. Let’s hope all those cakes are good!
SL
Be prepared for a lot of cake batter! I have a 7qt mixer but after I added the fruit mix, the batter was an inch below the edge of the mixer bowl, and the paddle was submerged to its neck. I transferred to my largest mixing bowl and stirred in the flour by hand. Pans: I used one 9” springform pan and two 8” springform pans because that’s what I have, but all three were quite full. Be sure pans are 2.5” deep at least, or be ready with extra pans.Smells good but haven’t tasted it yet!
Ramin Ganeshram
yes, because the cake is very dense Gluten Free flour works well
Liza H
In my opinion, Laurie Colwin's Black Cake recipe is the gold standard. She was a well loved writer and contributor to Gourmet magazine. The recipes sound very similar but hers has a layer of marzipan on top and white icing covering the cake. You can find it on Google.
Susan
Flavors are amazing but still figuring out the proper cake pan. Baked half of the batter in a 9 inch springform and it began to burn on the outer edge while still too wet on the inside.
Melissa in Miami
Finally! After baking it 3 weeks ago and basting with rum 4 times since, it is undeniably delicious!Soaking fruit now for next year’s cake! A new holiday tradition.
D
Mixed essence is typically vanilla, almond and pear extracts. I didn’t have pear so used 1 tsp each of vanilla, almond and fleur di sicilia, which I had. Burnt sugar syrup - found recipes online. Rough puree - when my mother made black cake everything was chopped to about the size of currants (or a tad bigger)I used the shortcut with the dried fruit and left it to soak for 2 weeks since I started late.
D
I never got the family black cake recipe before my parents passed so was eager to try this.One note - this makes a lot more batter than 2 conventional 9-in pans; maybe the recipe assumes extra deep pans. I’d suggest prepping 4 pans. Other than making my own mixed essence and burnt sugar syrup this was pretty straight forward. Like some others my fruit soaked up all the alcohol
Louise
The amount of batter filled 3 nine inch cake pans not two.
Melissa in Miami
Makes a lot of batter! I followed the recipe proportions and filled two standard cake pans, plus 2 smaller ones.The fruit I had soaked in rum for a year was starfruit and raisins and I honestly don’t think it makes much difference what type of fruit you use. I was afraid my lack of sweeter fruits like prunes and currants would make the cake not sweet enough. Not the case!Fill your cake pans almost to the top, as this really doesn’t rise much, and will settle after you take it out of the oven.
Ben
White man living in New York City here. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Trini Black Cake and have tried many of the other Caribbean variants as well. But if there is EVER a dish that merits purchasing rather than cooking, here it is. If you live in New York City, you can drive or take the subway to any of our fabulous West Indian restaurants. Many make Black Cake for the Holidays. In 1/100th of the time it takes to properly make a Black Cake, you can visit, buy a slice, and enjoy it thoroughly.
David
Can anyone who has actually made this clarify the “roughly purée” instruction? I put the fruit/booze in a food processor and chopped it up into roughly currant-sized piece. After soaking in the liquid, it’s still more of a lumpy (and delicious) sauce. There’s no way that a slotted spoon will remove only the fruit and leave any liquid behind. I now have it sitting over a sieve hoping that some will drain out, since recipe says there’s supposed to be some liquor left over…
buffy
This sounds like a lot of batter. Will it fit in my 4.5qt KA mixer?
SL
Be prepared for a lot of cake batter! I have a 7qt mixer but after I added the fruit mix, the batter was an inch below the edge of the mixer bowl, and the paddle was submerged to its neck. I transferred to my largest mixing bowl and stirred in the flour by hand. Pans: I used one 9” springform pan and two 8” springform pans because that’s what I have, but all three were quite full. Be sure pans are 2.5” deep at least, or be ready with extra pans.Smells good but haven’t tasted it yet!
CG
You can make your own burnt sugar syrup by adding a half cup of sugar to a small nonstick sauce pan over medium high heat. Let the sugar deeply caramelize until it is almost black and smoking a bit. Then reduce the heat to low and carefully pour in a quarter cup of water and stir vigorously. Let the syrup remain in the pan while it cools for about 15 minutes. Be very careful when adding the water to the caramelized sugar. Wear oven mitts, in case the syrup splashes because it is extremely hot.
RayTill
I would love this for x-mas but the recipe came out too late (no,I don't want to use the shortcut).
Allyson Smith
Could someone point me to a reputable source for the mixed essence? I’m only finding products full of artificial flavors and propylene glycol, polysorbate, caramel co*ke, etc., These sound like highly processed concoctions. Surely there are sources using genuine extracts?!
Pat
You can use 1tsp powdered mixed spice instead. Boston Spice "The British are coming" English mixed spice blend is a good replacement
Allyson Smith
Would King Arthur flour’s Fiori di Sicilia work for the essence? Anybody try this one?Thanks for any suggestions on this mixed essence dilemma.
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