I have recently had to bake a fruit cake, which was the first since my disaster before christmas with every cake going wrong. Luckily it all went well and now I am expanding the menu to include Jamaica Fruit cake. I have a wedding cake due at the end of July that includes a tier of Jamaica Fruit cake, so I had a new recipe to try out.
The ingredients are mostly the same as the fruit cakes I have been making. The main difference is to use Rum and Red Wine to soak the fruit in, rather than Brandy. Prunes are also included in the recipe and switch lemon for lime flavouring. The recipe I used was for 2 shallow 9″ round cake tins, however I wanted to do bake a 6″ round so I adjusted the measurements and left the fruit to soak.
When I first checked on the cake in the oven it was bubbling away, showing it was extremely moist. My first thought was – was it going to be too moist? However, when we let it cool and cut in to it to try it, it was delicious yeay! It was lovely and moist and definitely all cooked through.
I took some into work and got people to try it and provide feedback. The guys at work are fab for providing honest feedback and love taste testing cakes – surprisingly! Everyone reported back they liked it, with one comment suggesting the rum could be stronger to taste. With this cake I only soaked the fruit for 24 hours before baking, and cut into the cake without feeding it more rum. With the wedding cake I will aim to soak the fruit for at least 4 days and feed it once a week to help it mature nicely for the big day.
Hours of Fun 