Recipe - Black Cake (Traditional Cake From Saint Vincent)

1 pound Dark raisons; minced
1 pound Pitted prunes; minced
1 pound Dried currents; minced
1 pound Glacee'd cherries; minced
6 ounce Glacee'd lemon peel; minced
6 ounce Glacee'd orange peel; minced
1 Bottle (1.2 pints)
Manischewitz Concord Grape
wine
1 Bottle (750) dark rum
2 pound Dark brown sugar
4 One half cup All purpose flour
4 teaspoon Double acting baking
powder
One half teaspoon Freshly grated nutmeg
One half teaspoon Cinnamon
4 Sticks (2 cups) unsalted
butter, softened
10 lg Eggs
1 tablespoon Vanilla
1 One half cup Almond paste (about Three fourths lb)
if desired
For The Icing
7 cup Confectioners sugar (about 2
lb), sifted
6 lg Egg whites at room
temperature
2 tablespoon Strained fresh lemon juice
Silver Drage'es for
decorating the cake

In a large bowl, combine well the raisons, the prunes, the currents, the
cherries, the peels, the wine and the rum and let the fruit macerate,
covered at room temperature for at least two weeks.

In A heavy skillet combine 1 pound of the brown sugar and one cup of water,
bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring and washing down any
sugar crystals clinging to the side with a brush dipped in cold water,
until the sugar is dissolved. Boil the syrup, swirling the skillet
occasionally for 3 to 4 minutes or until it is reduced to 1 and Three fourths cup Let
the burnt sugar syrup cool and reserve it. Into a bowl, sift together the
flour, the baking powder, the nutmeg, and the cinnamon. In the large bowl
of an electric mixer cream together the remaining pound of brown sugar and
the butter until the mixture is light and fluffy and beat in the eggs, one
at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla, the flour
mixture, and 1 1/3 cups of the of the reserved burnt sugar syrup, reserving
the remaining syrup for another use.

In another large bowl combine the flour mixture and the fruit mixture and
divide the batter between two buttered and floured 10 inch springform pans.
Bake the cakes in the middle of a pre heated 350øF. oven 1 hour and 5= 0
minutes or until the cakes are set and a tester inserted into the centers
comes out with some crumbs adhering to it. (The centers of the cakes will
be quite moist.) Let the cakes cool in the pans on a rack, remove the sides
and the bottoms of the pans and wrap the cakes in foil or wax paper. Let
the cakes stand at room temperature for 1 week.

Roll out half the almond paste between two sheets of platic wrap to form a
10 inch round and remove the top sheet of plastic wrap. Fit the almond
paste over one of the cake layers, trimming the edge if necessary, remove
the other sheet of platic wrap and fit the remaining almond paste onto the
remaining cake in the same manner.

Make the icing: In a bowl, with an electric mixer beat 4 cups of the
confectioners sugar, the egg whites, and the lemon juice for 4 to 6 minutes
or until the mixture holds soft peaks. Beat in the remaining 3 cups
confectonsers sugar and beat until the icing holds stiff peaks.

Transfer 2 cups of the icing to a pastry bag fitted with a decorative tip,
spread the remaing icing on the tops and the sides of the cakes with a long
metal spatula, and pipe the icing in the icing bag decoratively onto the
cakes. Arrange the dragees on the cakes. Makes 2 cakes. Laurie Colwin for
an article in Gourmet Magazine

NOTES : "There is fruitcake and there is black cake, which is to fruitcake
what Brahms's piano quartets are to Muzak. It's closest relatives are plum
pudding and black bun, but they are mere third cousins twice removed. Black
cake, like truffles and vintage Burgundy, is deep, complicated, and
intense. It is light and dense at the same time and demands to be eaten in
a slow, meditative way" So said Laurie Colwin in an article in the November
1988 issue of Gourmet. I was so intrigued by this recipe that I immediatly
snipped it out to "save". Save it I did....lost for 9 years, it just
reappered during an especially vigorous file cleaning session. It sounds
marvelous.
Posted to MMRecipes Digest V4 #266 by LBotsko@aol.com on Oct 09, 1997