Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date - Macbeth Theme and Sour Cherry Fruit Cake

 Welcome to Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date! Cathy is kindly hosting today. Rain is back and will be hosting the Art and Dinner Date again starting Oct 9th!

 The theme is Macbeth.  I did a 'Bloody Crown' ACEO (2 1/2" x 3 1/2") in acrylic on cardstock.

For the Dinner Date, I made a sour cherry fruit cake based on a Jamaican black cake recipe. The process of making this cake is rather involved but I thought I would document it here anyway. These cakes require fruit to be pre-soaked for weeks or months in alcohol such as rum and wine. I used the fruit from my sour cherry liqueur.  It was delicious!  The cake should be darker but I ended up making my own browning and I didn't brown the sugar enough.

Here is my recipe:

9" round or square pan

1/3 c butter

3/4 c brown sugar

2 tbs vanilla

6 eggs

5 tbs browning (browned sugar)

2 tbs molasses

1 tbs ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground allspice

1 1/2 c flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2c soaked fruit  plus 1/4 c cherry liqueur for puree

1/4c cherry liqueur

juice of 1/2 lime (or lemon)

zest of 1/2 lime (or lemon)

1/2c port wine to pour on top of cake as soon as it comes out of oven

Browning recipe (can also be bought in a bottle)

1/3c dark sugar

1/3c boiling water

In saucepans on med heat melt sugar 4-5 min, then 2-3 more min till dark, mix in boiling water

300F oven

Grease and flour your pan

You will need a  pan of water for steaming

Blend the fruit and 1/4c of liqueur.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar in a mixer for 5 mins.

add eggs to another large bowl. whisk 3-5mins till foamy.  add vanilla, browning, molasses, lime juice

mix on low speed for 30 seconds. add cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, baking powder, salt, lime zest. mix 30 seconds on low speed 

Pour egg mix into butter mix, fold in fruit puree then flour plus 1/4 c liqueur. pour into prepared pan.

bake in preheated 300F oven for 2 hours with a cake pan underneath to steam.

The cake is ready when a knife comes out clean.

Pour wine on top of the cake as soon as cake comes out of oven. enjoy.