Jamaican Mystery Cake + GIVEAWAY!!!

JAMAICAN MYSTERY CAKE

Dessert time! While I have in my possession a recipe book for 250 Classic Cake Recipes, today I turned to the 15^th Annual Bake-Off for a really winning cake recipe.

Cake

2 ¼ C flour

1 1/3 C sugar

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 C milk

½ C shortening

2 eggs

1 ½ tsp vanilla

Sift together dry ingredients. Mix in milk and shortening. Blend 1 ½ minutes with electric mixer. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat another 1 ½ minutes.

Grease and flour two 8-in cake pans. Divide cake batter between two pans. Bake at 350^oF for 30 to 35 minutes. Cool completely in pans. While in the pans, prick each cake several times with a fork. I have a special place in my heart for this recipe because it reminds me of a family recipe. As a child, my uncle loved a similar cake that was pricked with a fork and then received a dousing of Jell-o for a sweet rainbow treatment.

Soak

½ C sugar

1 ½ tbsp instant coffee

½ C water

Boil ingredients in a saucepan. Boil for 4 minutes. Spoon soak mixture over both cake layers in the pan. Cool completely. Remove from pans, fill, and frost.

Filling

1/3 C flour

1/3 C sugar

¼ tsp salt

1 ½ C milk

3 egg yolks OR 2 eggs

2 tbsp butter

2 tsp rum flavoring OR 1 tbsp rum

Combine dry ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Gradually add milk and eggs. Cook, stirring constantly, until thick. Stir in butter and rum. Cover, chill. Reserve ½ C for frosting. Use the rest of the filling as a layer between the two layers of cake.

Frosting

1 C whipping cream

¼ C confecioner’s sugar

Beat ingredients, including ½ C reserved filling, until thick. Frost cake with whipped cream.

What’s the mystery? I have yet to figure it out, but this cake is AMAZING!

First, we tried it frozen, and the filling and frosting were almost like ice cream. Then, we chilled it in the fridge instead of the freezer, and it was still wonderful. I would make this again in a heartbeat, and I don’t even like the flavor of coffee! The cream and coffee in this reminded us of tiramisu, but the rum gave it a nice kick.

My husband liked this so much he started dreaming up new variations:

Kahlua cream

Hot cocoa/coffee mixture for the cake soak

A combination of mint flavoring and Bailey’s cream

Filled cupcakes

Speaking of which: time for a GIVEAWAY! The next person who starts following this blog AND posts a comment will receive a batch of these Jamaican Mystery filled cupcakes! Send me a message or respond in the comments to claim your prize!

Previous prizewinners include Jamie for sharing my blog and tagging friends, and Tamara for being the first person to comment!

Have a question or a request? Put it in the comments below and I’ll be sure to respond. Fröhe essen!