Jamaican Rum Cake
A dense Christmas cake of dried fruit soaked in rum and wine, baked, then drenched in rum syrup while still warm.
It tastes of rum, port and burnt sugar, and it is deliberately dark. The Jamaican Christmas cake, also called black cake, starts with dried fruit chopped finely and soaked for weeks in white rum and port wine. The fruit is then puréed into a dark paste, giving the cake its colour, its moisture and its deep flavour.
A full recipe requires a three-week soak, but a fast one can be made by simmering the fruit with the rum and wine for 15 minutes, then leaving it overnight. Blend the soaked fruit to a rough purée. It disperses through the batter and gives the cake its dense, even crumb.
The batter is built on butter and brown sugar creamed for 5 minutes, with eggs, flour, baking powder, mixed spice and a spoonful of burnt sugar syrup (browning) for colour. Fold in the fruit purée and a splash of rum.
Bake in a lined tin at 160°C / 320°F for 1 hour, until a skewer comes out clean. Pierce the top while warm and brush generously with rum. Wrap tightly and leave for a day or two before cutting; the flavour deepens.
Questions About Jamaican Rum Cake
How long does Jamaican Rum Cake take to make?
25 minutes of preparation and 1 hour of cooking, plus 24 hours of resting before slicing, so allow 25 hours 25 minutes from start to finish. The method also needs time for cooling the fruit, which it does not time, so treat that as a minimum. The recipe serves 12.
The Method for Jamaican Rum Cake
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Simmer the raisins, currants, cherries and peel with the 150 ml rum and the port for 15 minutes. Cool, then blend to a rough purée.
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Heat the oven to 160°C / 320°F (140°C / 285°F fan) and line a 20 cm round tin.
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Beat the butter and sugar for 5 minutes until pale. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
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Fold in the flour, baking powder and mixed spice, then the fruit purée, browning and vanilla.
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Bake for 60 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Prick the top and brush with the 4 tbsp rum. Cool, wrap and leave for a day before slicing.
Related guides: Prep, cook and total time · Pan and tin size.
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Tips That Matter
- Line the tin well.
- Cover with foil if the top darkens too fast.
- The cake improves over several days.
Serve It With
Hot tea · Coffee · Sorrel drink · Brandy butter
Keeping and Reheating
Keeps wrapped for 2 weeks or freezes for up to 3 months.
The Numbers per Serving
Per serving, an approximate calculation from the ingredient list. Treat it as a rough guide: all the alcohol is counted, though some is lost in cooking; part of the energy comes from foods, or weights per item, with no recorded source. The calories include 7 g of alcohol a serving, which is not part of the protein, carbohydrate or fat. How the figures are worked out.
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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