Many people in the U.S. hate fruit cake and dread receiving it as a gift. Jamaican Fruit Cake, a.k.a. "Black Cake" is completely different! It is rich, sweet and usually delightfully boozy! Traditionally this cake is reserved for special occasions such as Christmas, weddings and other important family events.
My first attempt at making fruit cake was in 2018. There was a lot of pressure on me! The women in Andrew's family have MAD kitchen skillz and grew up making this cake, and his family has very high standards. Luckily, I appear to have passed the test. Andrew's brother came over just to test my cake and he ate 3 pieces. He said he doesnât know how he feels about my using lime zest on the top, but my work is legit. He gave my cake a 9 out of 10. He said only his wifeâs cake gets a 10. (I'll take that score!). đ
The lime zest sparked quite a bit of conversation in Andrew's family. This is the story of the Lime Zest.
One of Andrew's family members text me her recipe for fruit cake. But Andrew told me he knew his mother used cherries and currants in her cake, so I went online to see if I should do anything differently when including these fruits. I came upon a recipe I really liked by Imma at Immaculate Bites. Imma uses a little lime zest in her cake. So I thought, why not try that?
When the cake was done I had a lot of leftover lime zest, so on a whim I dusted it over the top of my cake. Green is a Christmas color, afterall! đ. It's also a color in the Jamaican flag! đŻđČ
Andrew took a picture and posted it on social media. And then the comments started coming in . . . đŻ Many people said "they weren't sure about that lime zest." I was actually told by one family member "next time don't put lime zest on your cake"! đ.
I love how passionate people are about their food! I completely understand where they are coming from. Fruit cake is usually served without any topping, or just a dust of powdered sugar.
I definitely have strong opinions about many foods, too! But this cake tastes delicious with or without the zest on top. Andrew says this is my recipe and I should always include zest on top from now on.
So I am a fruit cake rebel! You can say what you want. đâ€ïž
I am still working on making this recipe my own, so I won't disclose anything you can't find online already. If you try to make this cake, let me know how it goes!
Here is a fun video we made in 2018 to document the creation of my first Jamaican Fruit Cake.
Happy Holidays!
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