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| Black Cake - with a chunk taken out :) |
This cake features in my forthcoming novel Miss Emily (out July in USA and Canada, August in UK and Ireland) so it was about time I actually made it. In the book Emily makes it for her December birthday and shares it with her Irish maid Ada.
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| Juno beating the eggs and sugar |
Emily's version of this calls for 19 eggs and 5 lbs of currants!! I made a quarter sized version. The finished cake certainly looks black and it tastes more
like a plum pudding than cake to me. It's rich and very fruity. I have no clue how Emily baked hers at 120°C in
three hours. My much-reduced cake took three hours and forty minutes and still
looked a bit moist around the middle.
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| Treacle marbling the batter - Emily used molasses in her version |
I had a lump of it hot from the oven last night - I am looking forward to having a piece today with soya custard or that lovely Alpro Lemon and Lime 'yogurt'.
INGREDIENTS
• 225g self-raising flour
• 225g butter
• 225g sugar
• half teaspoon baking soda (bread soda in Ireland)
• quarter teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1.25 teaspoons total: cloves, mace, cinnamon (or mixed
spice)
• 5 eggs
• 550g raisins
• 150g citron (candied peel)
• 150g currants
• 60ml brandy (or whiskey)
• 60ml treacle
METHOD
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Preheat oven to 120°C
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Grease and line the bottom of a round baking tin (8”)
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Sift together flour, bread soda and spices
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In a separate bowl, beat butter and sugar
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Add eggs one at a time and beating after each one
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Add brandy (or whiskey), mix well
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Add flour mixture, mix well.
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Add treacle and sprinkle in fruit as you stir
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Pour into greased tin
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Bake for 2 hours at 120°C
•
Bake for a further 1 hour 30 mins at 160°C then remove cake from tin to
cool
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Store in an air-tight container. Douse with whiskey/brandy once a week.
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