Was intrigued by the black cake recipes so went searching online. Ginger, do either of these sound authentic? They appear to have a lot more fruit in them than the other one posted.
Yeah, it does. Every old recipe down here varied so much because of availability of ingredients. It wouldn't surprise me about the Manishevitz wine. There's a large Jewish community here & our synagogue is (I think) the second oldest synagogue in our hemisphere. They've even kept the sand floors so I'm quite sure the wine available would be that brand. Dark rum would be what was used since rum is made in the V.I. The ones I've tasted had the fruit ground up so finely it was hard to tell which fruits they were - unlike what we think of as fruitcake. I've never had one with almond paste or icing though, not that there aren't some made that way. Every family has their own method.
I make Black Cake every year. Three comments on the recipe -- the fruit should be soaked much longer (I start in August), and tedious though it may seem, the fruit needs to be chopped by hand. Using a mincer or a food processor means you end up with a gluey, sticky mess. Also with cherries it is no longer black.
I cook it about six weeks before we want to eat it, and 'feed' it regularly with rum.
