Best cassava cake recipe - Cassava Black Cake

A decadent cake baked with rum-soaked fruits. This cassava black cake is a twist to the traditional Caribbean fruit cake replacing traditional flour with cassava flour.




This is the best cassava cake recipe you will find. A cassava black cake.

This cake is a rich cake, mixed with rum-infused fruits. Just the type of cake you want your guests to partake in.

It is a Caribbean tradition to have a black cake around the holidays. It's usually our traditional black fruit cake using regular wheat flour.

But now I have another option for you.


This cassava black cake is an alternative to your traditional black cake, and I can assure you it is a pretty close runner to the original.


By now you should have your fruits soak waiting for baking time. Or if you are like me you probably had some soaking since last year.

If you are not like me and you think you might be behind and want to still get your fruits ready. You can go ahead and try the steaming method I spoke about in my traditional black cake post.

Or you can still grind, just use a stronger rum instead. Using some puncheon (or any other high percentage alcohol rums) as your rum to grind really helps with a strong fruit mix, in a quicker time.

I know most people are intimidated by making a black cake. I know it was the first time I made it alone. But after that, I realized that it’s not that bad at all.

If you can make a sponge cake, you can make a black cake. The extra step is adding in the fruits really.

   

I am going to walk you through the process of making this step by step to show the ease.

So let’s gather our tools to be used.

• Mixer - This can be a stand mixer (I have the Kitchen Aid mixer) or a hand mixer (I have a Hamilton Beach hand mixer). Both work really well.
• Spatula - To help fold in ingredients so that you don't over mix the batter
• Baking pans - I use 2 8" pans. I prefer to use light pans like the Wilton aluminum performance pans versus darker ones. Darker ones take a long time with baking
• Baking spray - I either use Pam baking spray or Baker's Joy spray. These sprays are flour-based
• Large wide bowl -  This is optional but if you have a small mixing bowl it's good to transfer to after using the mixer.

How to make cassava black cake

Make sure you have everything at room temperature. Especially your butter and eggs.

Cream butter and eggs together until smooth. Make sure to not cream the mixture too much. The butter will start to separate from the sugar. And your cake would be too heavy

Just mix till light and fluffy.

Then add peanut butter and incorporate that into the mixture well. Halfway in the mixing stop the mixture and scoop from the bottom then continue mixing.

     
Sometimes the peanut butter sticks to the bottom of the mixer and doesn’t mix in well. So you just want to make sure you get all mixed so you can avoid clumps of peanut butter.

If you have a nut allergy AND a tree nut allergy, you can replace the peanut butter with sunflower butter. If you happen to just have a peanut allergy AND NOT a tree nut, you can use almond butter as a replacement.

Add eggs one at a time. Each time making sure that the egg is mixed in before adding the next.
   

Then add the Bob’s Red Mills cassava flour. Take your time and add this in bits. The flour is very light, so don’t start your mixer on a high level.

So start it at medium and then turn it up to the faster mix speed.
   

Now it’s time for your fruits. Your fruits should weigh four pounds. I personally add this in batches and I move away from my mixer for this.

I either just take the bowl from my mixer and remove the blade and continue mixing in that bowl. Or you can transfer to a larger bowl to mix.

Using a wooden spoon or spatula incorporate the fruits into your batter. It will take some handwork.
   

Then add in your Guinness and essence.
  
If the color is not as dark as you want it to be here you can add browning to get it to the color. Add in small amounts.

I always add browning cause I like my cake dark. So ¼ cup of browning to start then add more to your liking.
   
And I always use Grace Browning sauce in the small bottle (4.8 or 5 oz). It has the best consistency.

The larger bottles are a bit watery and throw off the texture of the cake with the amount you need to add for color.

Then make sure your pans are well greased to avoid any kind of sticking. I use aerosol sprays because I find them so much easier to use.

But greasing the pans with butter or lard then coating them with flour works just as well.
  
This cake doesn’t rise too much so you don’t have to worry that it will spill over. Fill them about ¾ ways up the pan. I get 2 8” pans with about a 2-inch height.

Smoothen the top of the batter with a spoon

This is a low bake. It can take between 2 hours to 2.5 hours. At about 2 hours, insert a knife in the center and make sure it comes out clean. If not, return to the oven and keep checking at intervals.

It takes me about 2 hours and 15 minutes with my oven.

Once out, let cool for a bit in the pans.

Like the other black cake, you do not want these out too quickly. While it is cooling, baste the top of the cakes with a rum/cherry brandy mix.

Please do not pour too much on the cake with the rum/brandy mix. It will make the cakes too moist and soft (kind of sappy) on the inside. Base, then rest for a while. Then base again. As it cools.

Remove from pans and put on a wire rack and you can continue to base it with some of the mix until it’s all the way cooled.
  
  

Storage

The best way to store black cakes of any kind is wrapped in cling wrap. It really helps to keep the moisture of the cake.

I usually place them in tins after that or even just wrap them with foil.

Seal any outside moisture from getting in.

If I happen to have it there for over a month or 2, I pour a little rum on it just to help with the moisture.

This can also be frozen like we freeze the traditional cake for anniversaries. Once removed from the freezer just bring it to room temperature and you are ready to slice.

You can top it up with some rum/brandy mix ½ to ½ if you wish.

And there you have it.
  

Now to grab a slice of this delicious cake that is baked with rum-soaked fruits.

What are you going to eat this with?
  


Here are some drinks to pair it with:

• Pumpkin ponche de creme
• Mauby
• Sorrel
• Ginger Beer