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Aruba Cooks
Linda Shapiro, Editor

by Wijkie Maduro

This special occasion cake is usually served in very small pieces as a memento of the event, such as weddings, anniversaries, and because the flavor is so rich.

Yield: 1 cake, serves many

Ingredients:

• 1 pound prunes
• 1 pound currants
• 1 pound raisins
• 1 pound dates
• ½ pound figs
• ½ pound mixed dried fruits
• 1 cup Martell Cognac
• 1 cup cherry cordial
• 1 cup Port wine
• 2½ cups flour
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 pound brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup molasses
• ½ pound butter or margarine, melted
• 6 eggs, beaten

Method:
In a very large bowl, mix together prunes, currants, raisins, dates, figs and mixed fruit. Pour Cognac, cherry cordial and wine over. Blend well. Cover and set aside to macerate for at least 2 days, as long as a week.

In other bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, sugar and cinnamon. Add vanilla, molasses, melted butter and eggs. Combine well. Add to fruit mixture.

Pour into well-greased 15½ x 10½" baking pan or two 9" baking pans. Bake in 350ºF oven for 1 hour.

Note:
Local cooks often prepare the fruit and store it in large glass jars for many months to be sure it is available for those special occasions.

About Wijkie Maduro:
Wijkie Maduro, and Aruba-born resident, has made a life-long commitment to preservation and preparation of Aruban cooking. Wijkie retired from a career in politics and labor union work to open a restaurant, now sadly closed, that offered "what our great-grandmothers cooked; the lavish and sometimes complex Aruban cooking". His recipes have been refined over the years from their earliest beginnings as sustenance for the first Indian settlers to the multi-everything-and-everyone's influences that followed.