Drunken Chocolate Fruit Cake
This delicious chocolate fruit cake is gluten free, dairy free, refined sugar free and vegan. I’m pretty sure it’s the healthiest Trinidad style black cake you will ever come across!
Gluten Free Trinidad Black Cake
In Trinidad and Tobago the traditional christmas cake is called black cake or simply fruit cake. This drunken chocolate fruit cake is like the healthy, fit cousin of traditional black cake… LOL
Seriously though, this is probably the healthiest Trinidad style black cake you will ever come across.
- No gluten
- No dairy
- No white sugar
How to prepare drunken chocolate fruit cake
This cake requires that you prep the fruits in advance. For the best possible flavour your fruits should be soaked in alcohol for a minimum of two days. My grandma always prepped her fruits one year in advance. The longer your fruits have been soaked the more intense the flavour.
The fruits I used to make this cake came with us on the move from Budapest. They have been sitting waiting for me for one year. I guess they were pretty drunk but just to be sure the cake lived up to its name I poured some rum onto the surface of the baked cake.
Christmas Traditions
Back when I was growing up Christmas in Trinidad was all about the food and the music. Today it seems everyone is in panic mode running around like headless chickens to get the perfect present. Maybe my memories are just skewed, maybe I was just always a foodie. When I think back some of my fondest memories of christmas are of black cake, sorrel, pastelles, ham with ponche de creme and ginger beer for the adults. I also remember it was the only time of year we could buy apples and grapes.
Trinidad fruit cake – A must for a real Trini Christmas
Fruit cake is an absolute must for a real Trini christmas. Given my food sensitivities, I was really afraid that I would no longer be able to enjoy this cake that embodies the whole feeling of christmas and to some extent my birthday which falls in January. I would normally have left over black cake as my birthday cake. I am elated that this gluten-free, dairy free, egg free Drunken Chocolate Fruit Cake is everything and more. Who says that those with diet restrictions can’t have any fun.
Ingredients
Drunken Fruit Mix
- ½ cup pitted prunes
- ½ cup dark raisins
- 1/2 cup pitted dates
- ½ cup dried currants
- 8 ounces cherries
- 3 cups dark rum plus more as needed
- 1 1/2 cups cherry brandy or cherry wine plus extra for grinding fruit
Fruit Mix Method
- Combine the fruit and alcohol in a large container with a tight-fitting lid. Let sit at room temperature for at least 2 days and up to 1 year.
- Shake or stir the mixture occasionally.
- When ready to bake combine the macerated fruit mixture with its liquid in a blender or food processor and process in batches, using extra brandy or rum as needed. I grind mine fine as I do not like bits of fruit in my cake. You can choose to leave chunks of some of the fruit if you prefer more texture.
Cake Ingredients
Liquid
- 1 cup cooked sweet potato puree approximately 2 small sweet potatoes steamed and pureed
- ¾ cup drunken fruit mix
- 2 small ripe bananas
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 3/4 cup maple syrup or honey
- 3/4 cup almond milk or other milk of your choice
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon Angostura bitters
Dry
- 1 cup chestnut flour buckwheat, GF oat or any all purpose GF flour works as well
- ¼ cup arrowroot starch potato starch or tapioca starch also works
- ¾ cup cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon psyllium husk powder guar gum, xanthan gum, milled chia or flax seeds
- 1 1/2 teaspoon GF baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Chocolate Rum Drizzle
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon milk of choice
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- dash of rum
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F/ 180ºC. Grease a large bundt cake pan and set aside.
- Place all liquid ingredients in a blender or food processor to combine.
- Combine all dry ingredients.
- Add wet mixture to the dry and mix until everything is combined and uniform.
- Pour into your bundt cake pan and bake for approximately 1 hour or until a skewer inserted down the centre comes out dry.
- Remove from oven and cool.
- Pour additional rum into the cracks on the surface of the cake.
- Prepare the chocolate rum drizzle by combining all the sauce ingredients. Once the cake is cool, transfer it to a serving plate and drizzle with the sauce.
Looks Yummy!!! Can’t wait to try it.
It sure is Kirtz! Let me know how it turned out..:)
Looks so good!!!! Could we have the recipe with gramms?
Tiphaine I will have to make the cake again to test with metric measurements. Since I just made this today and I don’t have these kind of treats often I can’t guarantee it will be very soon. But never fear that gives you time to put your fruits to soak. Get them all nice and drunk!.. :)
This looks amazing and so unusual! Thanks so much for letting me include it in my GF Chocolate Cake roundup :)
Thank you Danielle! Can’t wait to see the other cakes in the roundup!:)
Awesome!!! Looks delicious!!! I’ll try it!
Thanks Kostas! It’s a bit of work but totally worth the extra effort for a healthy chocolate cake treat!
Let me know how you like it Kostas!
oh my WORD :) i need this in my life!
Go get it girl!! Thanks Renee.. :)
“black cake, sorrel, pastelles, ham with ponche de creme and ginger beer” ahhh…food memories! Developing a vegan and gluten-free version of Trinidadian black cake has been on my to-do list for a while now but for some reason, I have never tried it yet. Now, I don’t think I have to! This recipe looks amazing, I can’t wait to try it out this December! Pinned! Thank you SO MUCH for sharing!
Thank you Gwen! I hate ‘missing’ out on those foods that bring me such good food memories so you can imagine my to-do list is also very long! I hope you can make this version of black cake. Don’t forget to put your fruits to soak.. :)
Planning to get some soaking in the summer :)
Excellent!
O wow! Pinned this for sure! The cherry whisky, that is so unique!
Thanks Rebecca! Don’t go using cherry whiskey though, it’s cherry brandy or cherry wine you need to marinate the fruits in. Or all rum.. ;)
The texture on this cake looks perfect! I’m amazed at how you achieved that when I look at the ingredients list. Good work!
Thank you Michelle! I love the texture on this fruit cake as well. Not soggy or heavy. It’s everything a good fruit cake should be.. :)
Krystal, this cake is just gorgeous. I love a good bundt cake — they’re always so effortlessly pretty and elegant, but your cake looks great in and out. Now, soaking fruit for a year in advance — not sure I could wait that long ;) But I can imagine having them soak for that length would make this cake all the more a treat.
Thank you Audrey! I usually do it the way my grandma did. As she’s baking the fruit cake she prepares the fruit for the following Christmas. Stick it at the back of the pantry and you tend to forget about it. The long soak is definitely worth the wait.. ;)
Such a beautiful, dark, rich cake! Pass us over a slice, please :)
Thanks Elizabeth, wish I could! ;)
Krystal that cake looks like all sorts of moist and dreamy and dark and chocolatey and totally screams FEED ME now!
Yes I think that just about summarises it. :)
I love the idea of the recipe; so much that I’ve made the cake at least three, if not four times. However, it is beautiful while it bakes yet, immediately on removing it from the oven–even after additional baking time to be sure it is completely done–the beautifully risen cake falls. Of course, we still eat it but it is so very disappointing to see such a gorgeous product turn into a flat cake. Any ideas why this consistently happens?
Hello Susan! Thank you so much for coming back to the blog and leaving a comment, I appreciate that. I’m so sorry your cake falls, I haven’t had this happen to me at all. The only idea that comes to mind is a difference in oven temperature and or the amount of leavening used. These are the usual culprits for a cake falling. Are you following the measurements exactly?
I LOVE this cake. The absolute best! Thanks so much for this recipe.