I was recently asked “what types of cakes do you like to bake most?”. It didn’t take long for me to say chocolate, followed by heavy fruitcake. For most of my clients, their favourite type of cake to eat is chocolate, but my personal favourite is a heavy fruit cake.
Barbados black cake
In the Caribbean and especially in Barbados, where Love At First Bite is located, our traditional fruit cake is called “black cake” (due to its very dark colour) or “great cake”, because I guess it tastes great (LOL!). Black cake is extremely popular in the Caribbean at Christmas time and on some other special occasions such as weddings. Apart from the inclusion of a hefty amount of dried fruit (such as raisins, cherries, prunes and orange peel), rum is a key part of the recipe.
With the Christmas season fast approaching, there will be a great demand for black cake, and I usually start my preparations by steeping or soaking my fruit in rum up to 2 months before the Christmas season. Some people start steeping theirs much longer than that for greater potency. I’ve heard of some soaking fruit in alcohol for up to a year! The rum-soaked fruit gives the cake a nice rich rum flavour and also helps to keep the cake moist. Your choice of rum is important. My go-to rum to add to my black cakes is, of course, my favourite and the world’s original rum (which is also from Barbados) … Mount Gay Rum!!!
My favourite occasion
When it comes to baking for different occasions, birthdays are my number one! I love creating for birthdays as there can be so many more variations for a particular type and character of cake. Everyone’s personality is really reflected in their birthday cake. As you can see from my cake gallery, birthday cakes can range from traditional designs to character cakes, sports-themed cakes, signature cupcakes, cheesecakes, photo cakes and the list goes on.
My favourite dessert
This list also made me start thinking of the types of cakes I haven’t baked as yet and would like to try. I have never done a pineapple upside down cake nor a tiramisu. And I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE tiramisu! The texture of this Italian dessert literally melts in your mouth, and the espresso and whipped cream flavour gives it the perfect balance. Mmm, mmm, mmm!
Who knows, maybe I’ll come up with my own spin on a tiramisu cake, so stay tuned!
So these are just a few of my favourite cake-related things.
What are your favourite cakes or desserts?