Rum & Raisin Ice Cream

All the stops

I was determined to make my family feel as comfortable as possible for the Christmas holidays so I made nibbles specially for meat eaters and even brought out the ice cream churner for a delicious rum and raisin ice cream.  The recipe was originally for chocolate raisin ice cream, but I adapted it to carry out my plans to keep everyone relaxed and ever so slightly intoxicated.

This recipe was adapted from The Dairy Book of Family Cookery (Ebury Press, 1983).

Rum & Raisin Ice Cream

Ingredients:

125g raisins, 10 tbsps dark rum, 2 tsps vanilla essence, 300ml milk, 2 eggs, 50g brown sugar, 300ml double cream.

Method:

1. Pour the rum over the raisins and leave to stand.
2. Beat the eggs and sugar together well.
3. Heat the milk and vanilla essence gently in a pan then add the beaten eggs and sugar.
4. When the custard thickens set aside.
5. Mix in the rum and raisins and leave to cool.
6. If you have an ice cream churner pour the cool mixture into the churner and then add the chilled cream.  Pour into a freezer proof container and freeze to firm the mixture.
7. Without a churner pour into a freezer container and freeze for about 3 hours and then stir gently to distribute the raisins easily.  Leave to set for another 6 hours.

Christmas Cake

My kinda Christmas

For the Christmas before last I wanted to create another memorable novelty cake which shouted Christmas but embraced the cultural diversity of the company I was in.  The African diaspora is extremely vast so black people cannot be identified by one cultural practice or one artistic interpretation.  So… I wanted to create a cake that: influenced by the colours of Ghana, the meaning of Christmas (as represented by the star), a black jolly Santa Claus (who was not only delivering Christmas cheer but playing the drums), because this Christmas was going to be full of African pride, laughter and completely unique to this celebration.  If you would like to try your very own novelty Christmas Cake then please use this tried and tested recipe by Levi Roots.  Not only is this a delicious cake but it is perfect for practicing decorations on with layers of icing that wont collapse it and be ridiculously overwhelming.

This recipe was taken from Levi Roots Caribbean Food Made Easy with Levi Roots (BBC Books, 2009).

Black Santa plays the drums

A Ghanaian Christmas

Ingredients:

250g currants, 250g raisins, 150g no – soak pitted prunes (quartered), 115g cut mixed peel, 300ml dark rum, 250g softened butter, 200g dark brown soft sugar, 5 eggs (lightly beaten), 250g self – raising flour, 50g blanched almonds (roughly chopped), 1/2 tsp mixed spice, 1 tsp vanilla extract.

Method:

1. Put the dried fruit and mixed peel in a saucepan and cover with rum.
2. Bring to the boil, stir, then immediately turn off the heat.
3. Cover and leave the fruit to macerate in the rum either overnight or up to 2 days, stirring from time to time.
4. Pre heat the oven to 160 degrees c.
5. Grease and with baking parchment line a 10 inch round cake tin or in another shape of your choice.  You can always cut the cake into a different shape if you do not have another shaped tin.
6. Cream together the butter and sugar in a large bowl until pale then beat in the eggs a little at the time adding 1 tbsp of flour after each addition until smooth and creamy.
7. Beat in the remaining flour.
8. Stir in the almonds, spice and vanilla extract followed by the fruit.
9. Mix well, adding a couple of spoonfuls of rum if the mixture is too stiff.
10. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin, cover loosely with foil and bake for about 2 hours.
11. Remove the foil 30 minutes before the end of the cooking time.
12. The cake is ready when a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
13. While the cake is still warm make holes all over it with a skewer and pour over the 4 tbsps of rum.
14. Leave to cool in the tin overnight then turn the cake out.

Saffy’s Top Tip:

If you are not going to decorate the cake straight away you can wrap the cake in foil and store in a cool dry place for up to a week before decorating.

Great Cake/ Christmas Cake/ Fruit Cake

All is Cake & All is Rum

After taking some time away from blogging to travel and focus on my career goals I developed the concept of Kamaria’s Kitchen as a step up from being just a personal food blog encouraging others to try mew recipes which will not only benefit their health but nurture a better relationship with food.  In theory all food should be beneficial as long as you don’t take in too much of one thing and you adapt your food to specific dietary requirements.  However,  people are not just affected by food physically but emotionally too.  I have witnessed this first hand and I know that small steps and a little encouragement can go a long long way.  So with that said I wanted my first set of recipes to be based on a substance that is known as a medicine in the Caribbean.  Rum is an alcoholic beverage so if you are an alcoholic avoid this recipe at all costs but for those of you that aren’t, all is rum!  Rum is made from sugarcane byproducts, dark rum,  gold rum, spiced rum, elevating people’s spirits and the inspiring many fantastic soca songs rum is a beautiful thing when used well.

For Christmas I made a collection of great cakes and rum cakes as gifts to family members.  They went down a treat and firmly established my position as a head cook in the family.  I will proudly blow my own trumpet on this occasion because these cakes were the bees knees!  I made the great cakes 5 months in advance dousing them every few weeks with strong dark rum and for the other rum cake variations I soaked mixed fruits for months in advance as well.  It is very important to start the baking process of these cakes in the summer, it is all in the maturing.  ‘Tis the way of the Gran Gran I tell ye!

To decorate the cakes I used marzipan and fondant icing.  Great cakes are very good for decorating because they are dense and do not have that light fluffy texture so no need to worry about them collapsing on you.  I also recommend these cakes for other special occasions such as weddings, anniversary celebrations… basically when rum in drinks is just not enough.

There are several recipe books which aided me in baking my cakes.  All that I have provided I have tested and am happy with the results.  As for my Gran Gran’s recipe and the famous Bajan great cakes those will have to remain a secret.

Caribbean Cookery Secrets by David and Gwendolyn Daley (Right Way, 2013).

Caribbean Food Made Easy With Levi Roots by Levi Roots (Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, 2009).

Mary Berry’s Baking Bible by Mary Berry (BBC Books, 2009).

Ingredients:

175g natural glace cherries, 350g currants, 225g sultanas, 225g raisins, 175g chopped apricots (dried ready to eat), 75g chopped candied peel, 12 tbsps rum, 300g plain flour, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 3 tsps ground mixed spice, 400g softened butter, 400g dark brown muscavado sugar, 5 large eggs, 65g chopped almonds, 2 tbsps black treacle, grated rind 1 lemon, grated rind 1 orange.

Method:

1. Put the cherries, currants, sultanas, raisins, apricots and chopped candied peel into a large bowl.
2. Add the rum and leave to soak overnight.
3. The next day measure the rest of the ingredients into a large bowl.
4. Fold in the soak fruits and spoon into a prepared cake tin a minimum of 9 inches.
5. Spread out the top of the cake with the back of the spoon.
6. Cover the top of the cake loosely with a double layer of baking parchment.
7. Pre heat the oven to 140 degrees C.
8. Bake for 4 hours and 30 minutes until the cake feels firm to the touch.
9. Leave to cool in the tin then when the cake is almost cold turn out, peel off the parchment and leave to finish cooling on a wire rack.
10. Pierce the base at intervals with a fine skewer and feed with a little brandy.
11. Once the cake is completely cold, wrap it in a double layer of parchment then in foil.
12. Store in a cool place for up to 3 months, feeding it at weekly to two week interviews with rum.

Saffy’s Top Tips:

1. Make it dark rum.  Very Dark Rum.
2. Do not substitute the sugar for caster sugar.
3. It is okay if you forget to feed the cake after a few weeks, the cake will not go off.