astray recipes: Jamaican chocolate cake

Categories: Cake/cookie
Yield: 12 servings

Measure	Ingredient
1½ cup	Self-rising flour
1½ teaspoon	Baking powder
1 teaspoon	Mixed Spice
¾ cup	Margarine, softened
¾ cup	Superfine sugar
3	Eggs
2 tablespoons	Unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons	Hot water
½ cup	Granulated sugar
⅔ cup	Water
2	Cinnamon sticks (2")
¼ cup	Dark rum
2 tablespoons	Slivered almonds
6 ounces	Semisweet chocolate, broken in pieces
	Whipped cream

Preheat oven to 325'F. (165'C.). Generously grease a 5-cup fluted or plain tube pan and dust lightly with flour. Sift flour, baking powder and Mixed Spice into a bowl. Add margarine, superfine sugar and eggs.

Blend cocoa powder with hot water and add to flour mixture. Beat well with a wooden spoon 2 minutes or 1 minute if using an electric mixer.

Turn mixture into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven 1-¼ hours or until well risen and cake begins to shrink from edges of pan.

Carefully turn out cake onto a wire rack and cool.

Combine granulated sugar and ⅔ cup water in a saucepan. Add cinnamon and heat gently, stirring to dissolve sugar. Boil 5 minutes.

Remove from heat, add rum and discard cinnamon. Place cake on a plate. Spoon syrup over cake and let stand 2 hours. Stud top of cake with almonds. Melt chocolate; carefully spooon over cake, spreading to give a smooth even coating. Let stand several hours. Pipe (with a pastry bag) whipped cream around bottom of cake.

jamaican chocolate cake