Jamaican Christmas Black Rum Fruitcake

Preliminaries

• Oven Temperature: 250 degrees Fahrenheit
• Time to Bake: About 3 hours
• Baking Pans: (3) round nine inch

Ingredients

1. Macerated Fruits

• 2-lb raisins
• 2-lb currants
• 2-lb prunes
• 1-lb glazed cherries
• 1-lb mixed fruit
• (2) 750 mL Taylor port wine
• 6-8 cups Jamaican overproof white rum

2. Fruitcake

• 1-lb unsalted butter
• 1-lb light or dark brown sugar

• 12 eggs
• 1/2 Tbsp lemon zest
• 1/2 Tbsp orange zest
• 2 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp almond extract

• 1-lb all purpose flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 2 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1-1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp allspice
• 3/8 tsp cloves
• 1/4 tsp mace

• 1 can evaporated milk (1-1/2 cups) + same amount water

• 6-ladles macerated fruit
• 1/4 cup burnt sugar

Advanced Preparation

1. Macerated Fruit

Prepare macerated fruit up to one year in advance of use…

1. Thoroughly wash and dry fruits ( I use my salad spinner).
2. Process fruits to a paste-like consistency and transfer to a 1-gallon glass airtight sealable jar.
3. Pour spirits over fruit in the jar, stir, seal, and store.

If you did not prepare fruit in advance, no worries. Here’s what I did one year when I felt my batch would be insufficient for what I wanted…
After washing, drying, and processing fruit, add to a pot along with the spirits and simmer on really low heat for 1-2 hours or more if you have the time.

2. Fruitcake

One or two days prior to baking day…

• Grease and line pans
• Measure out, combine, stir, and sift flour, baking powder, salt, and dry spices
• Zest one washed and dried lemon
• Zest one washed and dried orange

Baking day…

• Give butter and eggs sufficient time to come to room temperature…, at least one hour of preparing the batter.
• Have all ingredients measured and ready ahead of the start of preparing the cake batter.
• Crack each egg in separate containers and remove the eye from each.

Cake Preparation Instructions

Prior to Preparation of the Cake Batter

• Preheat oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Fill a large aluminum baking tray halfway with water

Cake Batter & Baking Steps

1. In mixer gently mash the butter
2. Add sugar to the butter and cream on medium speed for 3-5 minutes
3. Set mixer to low speed and add eggs to the creamed butter and sugar mix, one at a time ensuring each is mixed in well enough before adding the next
4. Add vanilla and almond extracts to mix
5. Stop the mixer and fold in both lemon and orange zests
6. Transfer batter to a large mixing bowl
7. Alternate adding sifted flour mix and milk mix to batter, carefully folding in each before adding more. Do not overmix..start and end with flour — add flour in four batches and milk in three batches
8. Stir in macerated fruits until incorporated throughout batter mix
9. Stir in burnt sugar until achieved the desired color
10. Pour batter into prepared baking pans
11. Add prepared water pan to the bottom-most portion of the oven
12. Now add baking pans of batter
13. Bake for at least three hours, before opening the oven to check for doneness by inserting a toothpick in the center of each cake.
14. Remove cakes from the oven when the inserted toothpick comes out clean; if not continue baking, checking every few minutes until done.
15. Let cakes cool fully in their tins set on cooling racks.

Notes

• If you like, you may brush the cake with a blend of wine and rum right after removing them from the oven.
• After cakes are fully cooled you may retain them in the baking tins or transfer them to a cake tray. Either way, ensure moisture retention by sealing them with plastic wrap.
• For long-term storage, in addition to the plastic wrap, fold with freezer paper to store in the freezer. Refrigeration will dry the cake out while freezing them will not.