"Tradition is only about what people have or have not done. It's not about what they are capable of doing. And it's not about what they will be doing in the future." Charmaine Wilkerson/Black Cake
Above is a photograph of a Caribbean black cake made by Brigid Ransome-Washington and described on the website Food52. In the article she describes how she, as a newlywed, and a new immigrant from Trinidad and Tobago to the US, decided to make this traditional Caribbean Christmas (and wedding) cake for her Jamaican immigrant husband.
The comments she makes in her introduction to the recipe, reinforce and add to much that is said about tradition when it comes to food, in today's book group book Black Cake, by a West Indian/American author Charmaine Wilkerson. I know I have talked a lot about the topic here and there over the years, but some of the words from both of these sources, were just a little bit different perhaps. Good enough anyway to cause me to feel that I had to write a post about it - about the cake itself, and the notion of tradition as well and 'history on a plate'.
The book by the way was a really good read - a sort of family saga with a healthy dose of racism, and culture clash, as well as a bit of a murder mystery, love stories, identity, fame - well a whole lot of things - all in one easy read. Maybe not a literary masterpiece, but a good read nevertheless.
Not to mention my overall focus on 'food as life, the universe and everything' I guess.
Let me get one trivial thing out of the way. The book focusses on two particular black cakes, and one at least - a wedding cake version - is elaborately iced. And the icing of the cake seems to part of the making of both cakes in the book. Yet, when I came to look for pictures of iced 'black cakes' I could not find many, and those that I did find were pretty basic. This one from Sainsbury's was the most elaborate one I could find. Yes there were beautifully iced black cakes - but that was just the icing. Not the cake itself. Curious. And certainly Brigid Ransome-Washington did not mention icing. Her finished cake is merely decorated with a few cherries - and I did find a few other pictures of 'black cakes' with cherries on top. Well most tradition states that the cake should include cherry brandy.
I guess what this actually highlights, is that this peculiarly Caribbean cake is also a cake which has so many individual versions - every family has its own tradition - that it is almost impossible to find one 'classic' recipe. The common denominators that I found were dried fruits - I'm guessing that the choice of exactly which ones varies from household to household - soaked in rum and cherry brandy port as well - for ages - up to a year. Well the mother in the book has a pot of soaking fruit permanently in her cupboard. This fruit is then pulverised - blended these days in a food processor I guess - and mixed with a cake batter which seems to feature almonds. I confess I didn't look into that bit much. Sugar is involved - dark sugar I think. Plus what they call black sugar which seems to be caramelised to almost black sugar which is then mixed with hot water. I have to say that this step seems to be missing from many of the recipes I came across.
However, when it comes to this book, and maybe to Caribbeans - I don't know - black cake is more than a family tradition and potential arguments about whose is the best or most 'authentic' version. It's also a symbol of the colonial history of the islands. It is, of course, a descendant of the British Christmas pudding and Christmas cake. Rum instead of brandy, oodles of sugar and a different method. British because the cake is from the British Caribbean not the French or the Spanish, though, I'm guessing, that it has spread there too. I'm also guessing that each island theoretically has its own version, although one would wonder what those differences would be based on, as surely the British islands are very similar in terms of their history.
None of those ingredients, however are native to the islands - particularly the sugar on which the islands' wealth was based and the rum that was distilled from the sugar; so in a way you could say that it is not a native Caribbean dish. Not in the same way as jerk pork and chicken for example. It's definitely history on a plate though. And in a way you would have to wonder why the Caribbeans
would choose to adopt as something so closely associated with family, with home and cultural identity, a cake based on things that were not only foreign, but also reminders of a terrible past. And who thought of doing it first? And when? It must have been after the slave times, because the slaves would not have had access to the ingredients surely.
"The ingredients — brown sugar, rum, and browning — are culinary guideposts reminiscent of an age when the economic priority of sugar, powered by the ills of slavery, anchored British interest in the West Indies. As such this cake embodies two extremes: labor and luxury." Brigid Ransome-Washington
The luxury aspect being the dried fruit - so much of it and so expensive. Back then anyway. I cannot find an origin story that puts it in a particular place, or a particular person's head. I get the relationship to the British Christmas pudding, and you could sort of see somebody getting the idea of soaking the fruit in rum but pounding the fruit to a paste? And the liquid black sugar?
"Tradition his ma used to say. But whose tradition, exactly? Black cake was essentially a plum pudding handed down to the Caribbeans by colonisers from a cold country. Why claim the recipes of the exploiters as your own?" Charmaine Wilkerson/Black Cake
Apparently the slaves were often given rum to calm them down, or perhaps to make them feel grateful - to lessen feelings of rebellion anyway. Until apparently eventually they did rebel after one festival at which they had been fed the rum. So maybe the cake is a kind of rebellion. Look we can take your tradition and make it our own - and better too.
"It’s a cake that beats with a rhythm that only the islands could produce. All the elements that the process of baking has ever prized—patience, decadence, and intrigue—are set within black cake’s dark, rich, and historic interior." Brigid Ransom-Washington/Food 52
And when does tradition become cultural appropriation and vice-versa I guess. Weren't the Caribbeans culturally appropriating British plum pudding? Is it revenge or homage to take something from a conquering nation transforming it in the process?
There's also a difference in the history on a plate thing when it comes to imported ingredients I feel. In some instances like the black cake, the traditions of the country from which the ingredients are imported become part of the new dish. Although, of course, in this case the sugar, and the dried fruits do not even come from the colonisers. In other places, such as with tomatoes, peppers, corn, beans into Italy, the importing country developed a whole new cuisine, with very little relationship to the food of the source country. Others are a mix, like the people themselves - not just the culture or the ingredient - such as all those Anglo-Indian, and American-Italian dishes.
"some foods are born, bred and developed within a particular geographic area or food culture. Others are imported, and yes, they find their places in new cultures over time, but they wouldn't be there in the first place without long-distance travel, without commercial exchanges and, in many cases, a history of exploitation ... We cannot always say at which point one culture ends and another begins, ... especially in the kitchen." Charmaine Wilkerson/Black Cake.
Time also plays a part. As I mentioned, these days the soaked dried fruit would be processed in a machine, whereas in times gone by they would have been pounded into a pulp by hand. Sometimes the right ingredients are not to hand or have changed. Brigid Ransom-Washington could not find cherry brandy in America - weird in itself - so she substituted Kosher Maischewitz wine:
"I was now a participant and witness to the intergenerational transmission of this key part of our Caribbean heritage. When I pulled the black cakes out of the oven—moist and shamelessly decadent—I also extracted the knowledge that this cake was never meant to be exactly like my mother’s or my mother-in-law’s, because in this cake I’d started a new tradition, Manischewitz wine and all." Brigid Ransome-Washington/Food 52
And in the book one of Charmaine Wilkerson's characters - a cook who is trying to work with traditional foods, talks about photographing the process of making a black cake but with modifications:
"Photo number one: the jar of fruits sitting next to a group of eggs. One day, Benny would develop an eggless version of this recipe, because times had changed and food was going to have to change with them, but that would take some experimentation and, probably, leave her mother appalled." Charmaine Wilkerson
I doubt that I shall ever make this cake although, since I shall be hosting Christmas Eve dinner again, maybe I should start soaking some fruit now and actually make the cake. This version might be one to try - from Shivi Ramatour on the delicious.uk site. I should have another look.
As to language and food - well two things. It's called 'black cake' which I guess is not just a reference to the colour - which is brown anyway - but also to the fact that it is a dish created by black-skinned slaves from Africa. The other is the use of Caribbean instead of West Indian - which I have mentioned already. A recognition of changing ethnic/cultural terms - what is acceptable, what is not I guess. Although what the reasoning is here I do not know, as basically it is just swapping one geographical term for another. Is it because most British people with West Indian heritage, are possibly no longer entirely West Indian having mixed with all the other ethnicities that exist in Britain. Besides - their heritage is really African not West Indian at all. 'Black cake' would still apply, but then these days it's not appropriate to refer to people's skin colour.
Truly a wonderful example, however of how the food on your plate can teach you so much about so many things - I haven't mentioned the whole history of sugar - or the fact that these days you can buy a 'black cake' in Sainsbury's. Now how and why did that happen? Waitrose has a recipe too.
