It is a long way from the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh to Guyana on the northern coast of South America. Then go from Guyana to Canada. Wow, quite a journey and that is the one that my workplace colleague, Joyce Ramsubick’s,. ancestors first took and which she finished off. Now that she is ensconced in Canada with adult children and a 30 year history in the country there are still roots to her past which come to the surface periodically. Guyana Black Cake is one of those roots.
This is a cake that is traditionally eaten during the Christmas festive season at the end of December. However, the beginnings are a year earlier when the main ingredients are assembled and suitably drowned in alcohol. To be exact this is rum and port straight from Guyana. Remember this is Joyce’s recipe and according to her “if it ain’t from Guyana it ain’t the real thing”. For the rest of us, rum is rum who cares where it is from. The first step is to take one pound (that’s ½ a kilo for the vast majority of the world) of prunes and raisins blended together. Now take half a bottle of each of the above mentioned libations and soak the mixed up dried fruits in a jar. How long do you soak? It is up to you, Joyce does it for one year, but you can do it for three or six months. Your choice. By the way, don’t throw out the left over liquor it also can be consumed on it’s own in a glass with some ice and a Coca Cola, but that is for another article.
Now for the cake part. Take one pound each of flour, sugar, butter and one dozen eggs. Stir all the ingredients in a bowl to make your batter. Next open the jar and mix in the well preserved fruit. Put it in a cake pan and slip the whole concoction into the oven. You will know when it is baked to completion by the way the cake springs back after you push down slightly on the surface. The finished cake will be moist, moist, moist.
The cake will last a year or more, but eventually it will start to dry out. To make it last even longer the trick is to keep it in an airtight container and pour liquor over it periodically. Needless to say with all that alcohol preserving it there is no need to put this creation in the refrigerator. Whether you are a drinker or not this cake is yummy, yummy it just melts in your mouth.
Originally Joyce got this recipe from her mother and some of the other older folks, but over the years she has refined and defined her own version. Those early days spent in Guyana when friends and relatives would drop in and Christmas cake would be served all day long left an impression with a young Joyce and her siblings. All three of her sisters bake the black cake in one form or another. If you were wondering, yes the cake is black in colour, hence the name. It was an exciting time as kids and adults all partook in the eating of cake. No there isn’t anybody getting drunk on this celebratory treat. Evaporation and baking take the sting out of the rum/port mixture leaving only an exquisite taste to tickle the palate.
The Guyana Black Cake is not something you sit down and gorge yourself to the max. Rather it should be treated as a delicacy that you only eat a little of at one time. The result should be that even if you have people over to the house, serve them cake and you should still have enough left over to let them take some back to their home. This is what Joyce’s mom always did. One other thing her mom passed on for those thinking of sampling the fruit while it was still undergoing absorption in the jar. Don’t do it you could lose an arm!
All this writing has enticed me to unwrap the two mouthfuls of cake I have remaining from the slice Joyce gave me and gobble them up. That’s precisely what I am going to do now.
