What's a black cake?
Oops, thanks for the reminder - I totally forgot about this
'Too fat' was basically 'too stoned'
You've probably googled but it's a Caribbean fruit cake. You use burnt sugar syrup and people often blend the dried fruit, so it's darker than a normal fruit cake.
Here you go
Rebelda - sorry about the American cup measurements. I got it from a crappy American book but have tweaked it a few times following conversations. I don't mind the cups so much with this cake because it feels like it doesn't need precision - too much goodness to go wrong. Also I use this as a guide but usually end up chucking in nuts, other dried fruit like figs, red wine, whatever I have lying about x
2 cups currants
3 cups raisins
1 cup pitted prunes
1 cup glace cherries
Two thirds cup candied peel
Two thirds cup crystallised ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
Half tsp allspice
Quarter tsp nutmeg
(Plus whatever other spices you feel necessary - I sometimes use ground cloves)
6 tbsp rum - plus loads more for feeding
Half pint cherry brandy or sherry
1 cup soft dark brown sugar
Half cup
burnt sugar syrup
4 cups self-raising flour
2 cups butter
10 eggs, beaten
1tsp vanilla extract
1. Blend the dried fruit and add spices and booze. Leave for as long as you can, occasionally adding more booze.
2. Preheat oven to 160/gas mark 3. Grease and line 10inch tin.
3. Cream butter and sugar (not syrup yet). Beat in the eggs gradually. It always fucking curdles because there are so many eggs. Add bits of sifted flour if you want, to help with that.
4. Add fruit mixture, then flour bit by bit, then vanilla.
5. Stir in burnt sugar syrup.
6. Bake for about 2.5 hours.
7. When it's cooled, make holes in the top and feed it with rum.
8. Wrap it up in baking paper, returning now and then to feed it with more rum.
).
I often make more than one, or lots of mini ones. It's a properly decadent thing to hand over. I might put another batch of fruit on soak actually, for the hard to buy for aunties 
