Guyanese Black Cake

Guyanese Black Cake is a rich, dense and moist cake. It is made with rum soaked fruits and a dark sugar caramel gives it its signature black color. It is traditionally made at Christmas and for weddings.

Course Dessert

Cuisine Guyanese

Keyword best caribbean black cake recipe, black cake, black cake Guyana, Black cake recipe, black fruit cake recipe, black rum cake recipe, caribbean black cake recipe, Guyanese Black Cake, guyanese black cake recipe, metemgee black cake recipe

Prep Time 1

Cook Time 1 30

Total Time 2 30

Servings

Calories 489kcal

Author Althea Brown

Equipment

Parchment Paper
Aluminum Foil
2 8x3 inch pans

Ingredients

1 lb butter (2 cups)
1 lb granulated sugar (2 cups)
9 eggs
4 lbs soaked and blended fruits 8 cups
12 ounces flour about 2 1/2 cups
1 teaspoon baking powder optional
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground clove
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon orange zest
4 to 6 tablespoons burnt sugar
1/2 cup red wine e.g. Porto
3 tablespoon dark rum
Cooking spray

Instructions

Cream butter and sifted sugar until most of the sugar crystals dissolve. Then add the eggs to creamed butter and sugar one at a time until all of the eggs are fully incorporated into the mixture.
After the eggs have been added, add fruits to butter, sugar and eggs mixture (one cup at a time) and mix together until all of the fruits have been completely mixed into the batter.
Next add the wine and orange zest to batter. Then add the burnt sugar, one tablespoon at a time until your batter is the desired color.
Sift together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground nutmeg. Then fold flour into the batter one cup at a time.
Preheat the oven to 300°F and grease the baking pans with cooking spray or rub with butter, then line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper.
Divide the batter equally among the baking pans. Wrap the bottom of the baking pan with aluminum foil and place cake on the middle rack in the oven. Bake for 75 to 90 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the black cake comes out smooth.
Once cake is fully cooked, remove from the oven and brush each cake with 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons of rum, while cake is still hot. Feel free to add more rum if you like, but not too much or the cake will be soggy.
Cover the cake with a kitchen towel and let cool. Allow cake to cool completely, then remove from baking pans
Store cake in a covered container. Depending on how long you keep the cake for, you may add more rum once or twice a week so that it doesn't dry out

Notes

Please read through the post for all the tips you need.

It is very easy to half this recipe to make 1 cake. If you do use 5 eggs instead of 4.

Check your cake at the 75 minutes mark and if it is completely cooked remove it from the oven.

Some people prefer to cook this cake at 275 °F. They prefer the better safe than sorry method. If this is you, this is perfectly fine, because this cake can become really dry if it is over cooked and we are aiming for the moist pudding like texture, versus a traditional cake texture

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