Food52
Flush with wine-drenched raisins, prunes, and currants, this Black Cake Cookie is a rich, chewy cookie perfectly in sync with the Christmas season. When looking for something to mark a special occasion, people across the British West Indies turn to black cake as a traditional staple. The key ingredient is burnt sugar browning, a Caribbean necessity used across savory applications like braised oxtail and brown stew chicken, as well as sweet uses in things like Easter buns. Typically baked in butter cookie tins, black cake is shared between family and friends, each swapping a unique family recipe. The addition of a generous amount of alcohol preserves the cake, which is often reserved from a wedding until the newlyweds' first anniversary. It's also enjoyed with hot tea during the Christmas holiday and well beyond the New Year, and gets brought out to wow special house guests. This recipe turns the dense, pudding-like cake into a crispy-edged cookie with a chewy pool in the center and delightful hints of nutmeg and cinnamon. It’s a great bite to be enjoyed with hot chocolate, eggnog, or tea. Going lighter on the wine and rum makes the cookie more easily accessible and much easier to devour one after the other, as you’ll want to do. Note: If burnt sugar browning is not used, the cookies will lose their namesake coloring but won’t lose out on flavor. Do not substitute with Gravy Master or Kitchen Bouquet browning or others without first checking the ingredients, as they often contain savory elements like garlic powder. I recommend the Grace or Blue Mountain Country brands.
