Black or Marinated Cake, the Favorite of Colombian Celebrations

The black cake is a highly popular pastry in several Latin American countries, made with a mixture of candied fruits and nuts macerated in rum and sweet wine. 

 

In Colombia, it is also known as marinated cake or wedding cake, mainly due to its flavor of sweet liqueur and its presence at any special celebration. Its dark color is mainly due to burnt panela used in its preparation and is moistened with sweet wine after baking. 

 

According to historical data, this cake was introduced in the 19th century by the Gauls in Argentina and Venezuela, who devised during their journey a cake made with easily preserved ingredients like candied fruits, rum, and honey. 

 

This dessert was known as Welsh black cake, and later its recipe spread throughout Latin America, arriving in Colombia and being adopted as the Colombian black cake. 

 

In the Colombian version of this cake, it is common to include walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, spices, and give it a special touch with sweet red wine, Porto, dark beer, or brandy. 

 

This dessert has a somewhat dense consistency that it acquires from macerating the fruits in alcohol, although curiously, some claim that the length of maceration is not critical for the cake to have better flavor and texture.   

 

While this recipe is very popular in countries like Venezuela, Jamaica, and Argentina, in Colombia tradition holds that the cake should be aromatized with a good amount of sweet spices, crushed nuts, and use very dark panela to reinforce the flavor and color of the crumb; not forgetting to soak the cake with sweet wine.