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

Instructions

Cream butter and sifted sugar until most of the sugar crystals dissolve
Add 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 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
Add flour to the batter one cup at a time and incorporating the flour into the batter using a figure 8 motion
Preheat oven to 300°F
Grease baking pans with cooking spray, then line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper
Divide batter equally among the baking pans
Wrap the bottom of the baking pan with aluminum foil
Place cake on the middle rack in the oven and 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 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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