Black Cake

Begin with fruit and booze.

Wait six weeks.

Bake for 4 hours.

Eat slowly.

 

Recipe from How To Be A Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson.
Notes: The original recipe comes from Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking who in turn got it from her babysitter, a woman from St. Vincent, who got it from her mother. The main differences are that Colwin's calls for burnt sugar essence while Lawson uses treacle (molasses). I think the burnt sugar is the only way to make the cake darker. I baked mine in a deep 9" springform pan and it was filled to the top. The surface was quite dry after baking, even with parchment and brown paper protecting it, so I brushed the whole thing down with port and wrapped it for a few days.