Angela Price Transcript
Jessie Sheehan:
Hi peeps, you are listening to She's My Cherry Pie, the baking podcast from The Cherry Bombe Podcast Network. I'm your host, Jessie Sheehan. I'm a baker, recipe developer, and author of three baking books, including my latest, “Snackable Bakes.” Each Saturday I'm hanging out with the sweetest bakers around and taking a deep dive into their signature bakes.
Today's guest is Angela Price. Angela is the founder and baker behind the Black Cake Company, a mail order bakery based in Brooklyn that specializes in black cakes. Angela is from Barbados, but moved to New Jersey in 1972 and started her business in the eighties. Angela joins me to talk about her 35 plus years in the biz, how she found her purpose through baking, and all the nuances of this traditional Caribbean cake. We then take a deep dive into her black cake recipe, which is a bit of a secret, so Angela kindly gives us a peek into her process and techniques. As you might know, this cake is popular around the holidays, and it's especially buzzy right now due to the Hulu series based on the novel “Black Cake” by Charmaine Wilkerson. If you're interested in trying one of Angela's black cakes, her bakery ships worldwide. So be sure to get your order in soon at blackcake.com. Stay tuned for my chat with Angela.
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Let's check in with today's guest. Angela, so excited to have you on She's My Cherry Pie and to talk black cake with you and so much more.
Angela Price:
Thank you so much, Jessie. I really appreciate the opportunity to do it.
Jessie Sheehan:
Aww. So you've said that you learned to bake by osmosis, spending so much time in Barbados as a child with your mom, who baked cupcakes and made patties professionally. But spending time with her also fostered your entrepreneurial spirit.
Can you tell us a little bit about both things? About learning to bake, but also kind of getting that entrepreneurial bug?
Angela Price:
Yeah, it was so automatic. In reflection, I realize I was out delivering those patties, delivering those cupcakes to supermarkets; when I actually sat and reflected on it, I thought, "Maybe this is really where my entrepreneurial spirit started."
I guess I could say too my dad was a mechanic and he also had his own auto mechanics shop that he built, and I think it was always in my blood. And I never even thought about it until this came around and women started to get into business for themselves and I thought, "I need to find myself."
Jessie Sheehan:
Can you tell us about the cupcakes and the patties? What were the flavors and did she have a special technique, or anything about those two?
Angela Price:
Yeah, so she did different chocolate cupcakes, she did vanilla cupcakes. And then of course the icing was different, so you had pink and blue and all those other colors that she would deliver to the supermarket.
The patties were these little dainty things. They were very tiny. I know Jamaicans make a large one, but in Barbados we make these little tiny ones, almost the size of a cupcake. They had this ground beef inside of it, and the pastry she made from scratch, and then she would just fork it around and put it together.
Jessie Sheehan:
Your mom also taught you how to make black cake, which we will be talking about shortly and in depth, but did she teach you to bake anything else that you still love to bake today, or does running a cake business and making cake all the time do it for you baking wise?
Angela Price:
She always made all kinds of cakes. So she made pound cake. And then there's sort of a variation on the black cake. It's called a light fruit cake. So it's like a pound cake just with a bit of fruit. And that was one of her favorites.
I'll tell you a story. When I started to make the black cake, because my mom always made it brown, and so when I started, I started making it brown. And I put it out in the marketplace and people said, "Well, this is not black cake." And I was like, "Well, yes, it is. It's what my mom made." Until I realized that we had that additional ingredient that turned the brown to black,
Jessie Sheehan:
Which we will be talking about.
Angela Price:
Yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
So you moved to the US, to New Jersey in 1972, started a family. And although you always baked traditional Caribbean black cake, your baking and cake making was primarily focused on making cakes and shipping to cousins and filling requests for friends, and your actual job was working with your husband.
But then in 1987, or around then, things started to change. And I heard you tell Al Roker that there was a Johnny Carson episode where somebody did something to a fruitcake that upset you and that you said, "I'm going to change how people feel about fruitcakes."
Can you tell us about that Johnny Carson episode?
Angela Price:
Oh, that was a moment. They brought this crane into crush a fruitcake, and they had this huge joke about it because they said fruitcakes are always passed on and on and on, and it was so hard that they could do absolutely nothing with it. I thought, "Oh my goodness. If I could get the North American region to taste our fruitcake from the Caribbean, it would change everything."
Jessie Sheehan:
Oh my ... And it did.
And then when you first started to think about maybe doing something with your mom's black cake, for the first time, I guess, you saw what it would feel like to measure out all of those ingredients.
Can you tell us about that experience and how that kind of inspired you, in addition to the Johnny Carson episode, to sort of get the black cake word out, as it were?
Angela Price:
Yeah. I wanted to really find out why I was here. I really was seeking my purpose and thought, "How could I absolutely do the thing that brings me joy?" And so for three straight nights, I went to bed and I asked God just before going to bed the question, "What is my purpose?" And for three straight mornings I got up and I heard the word 'cakes.' And that was what sent me on this journey.
It was just at the time when women were getting into business for themselves. In 1987, I was actually working with my husband in his data processing consulting firm, but I wasn't satisfied.
I did put an ad in Working Woman in the classified section and got zero orders.
Jessie Sheehan:
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
Angela Price:
It does. I was undaunted. I just kept going and going and going.
And he offered a tremendous amount of support. His business was growing and he was able to support the business financially as well.
So that really was the impetus for me to keep doing things.
Jessie Sheehan:
When you were making the black cake for friends and cousins, you weren't measuring either, you were just sort of doing it from memory?
Angela Price:
Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
And then you sort of put it onto paper once you knew, "Hey, this might be my business. I might want to do this professionally?"
Angela Price:
Exactly. I started to measure everything. Because my mom measured nothing, but her cakes were perfect. So just following her, I decided, "If I want to replicate this cake, if I want it to be consistent," I had to measure everything.
Jessie Sheehan:
It worked because of your business, but I also feel like that's a common refrain, that our elders didn't, you know, grandmothers, et cetera, aunties, that nobody shared their recipes because they were all in their head.
Angela Price:
Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
And if you didn't write them down, you were never going to have them.
Angela Price:
Right. I never wrote it down. I just had it because I was always around her when she baked, always around her when she cooked and baked.
But baking really was my love. Not so much cooking.
Jessie Sheehan:
Even patties?
Angela Price:
Even patties.
Jessie Sheehan:
Can you tell us about the absolute genius move that your husband made registering those URLs? Can you tell everyone what the URLs that you guys own for the business are?
Angela Price:
Yes. So he had a tremendous amount of foresight. He was in the data process and consulting world at that time, and he had employees working for him, and so we secured blackcake.com and rumcake.com. Yeah. It was really, truly a blessing.
Jessie Sheehan:
Now for over 35 years, you've been passionate about baking and building your company and about finding purpose. Can you tell us a little bit about the Black Cake Company? Caribbean Cake Connoisseurs was the name before?
Angela Price:
Yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
Tell us about running it in Brooklyn with Kamari, your daughter, and it's mail order only. Tell us all the scoops.
Angela Price:
Yeah, so when we started out in New Jersey, I started out with my husband, and we were mailing and shipping cakes. At the time, in the early 1990s, there were a lot of black expos happening at Jacob Javits in Maryland and California, in Los Angeles and Texas and Houston and Atlanta. So what I did was we actually traveled to these cities, so we were able to expose the cake to a lot of other individuals in the states; and also build our mailing list, because somehow mailing and shipping was really my passion. I never saw myself in a sort of a retail store.
And so we traveled and we took samples and we fed the people, and we built our list and kept growing. And then we got some exposure in black enterprise, and we got exposure in Essence Magazine and some of the newspapers; Star Ledger in New Jersey, Amsterdam News. We got write-ups all along the way. That also helped to propel us forward.
Jessie Sheehan:
So now there is this TV show on Hulu called “Black Cake,” which I have to say I am really into. Have you watched, do you like?
Angela Price:
I have watched at least three or four of the episodes. I think it was a real genius of Charmin Wilkerson as she wrote that book and sort of put it out there in the marketplace. It tells a story of the Caribbean and the things that go on there.
But this cake is so dear to the entire Caribbean region. Every island makes it, there's so many different names for it. In Barbados, where I'm from, it's called Greek cake, black cake, fruit cake. Jamaica calls it Christmas pudding. People from Guyana call it rum cake. I mean ...
Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. I love that. Can you tell us about Hulu contacting you to help out with maybe ... Was it publicity for the show?
Angela Price:
Yes. We worked with both Hulu, Disney. They all bought cakes. We made like thousands of hearts. They sent some of the hearts for the actual November 1st launching of the black cake to universities, coffee shops. It was absolutely amazing.
Jessie Sheehan:
And have you seen, I hope, an uptick in sales now that ... Because I keep thinking, if anyone Googles the TV show, they're going to come and find your company and be like, "Oh, I can watch TV and eat the cake."
Angela Price:
Yes. Well, it actually started back in February when the book was published. So literally every week we would get orders for book clubs who were reading the book, and so they always wanted to have cakes. Usually they had maybe 8, 10, 15 people who were in the book clubs. We've been getting orders for book clubs since February of 2022.
Jessie Sheehan:
We'll be right back. Today's episode is also presented by California Prunes. I'm a California Prunes fan when it comes to smart snacking. Funnily enough, at the same time we started this podcast, my doctor told me how good prunes are for your gut, your heart, and even your bones. Prunes contain dietary fiber and other nutrients to support good gut health, potassium to support heart health, and vitamin K, copper and antioxidants to support healthy bones. So prunes became a daily snack of mine. I have them in my cabinet at home, I put them in smoothies, and I bring them with me when I'm on the go because they're perfectly portable. Now let's talk about my true love: baking. California Prunes are a great addition to baked goods, especially this time of year. They work beautifully in recipes with rich and complex flavors, like espresso, olives, and chilies, and they enhance the flavor of warm spices, toffee, caramel, and chocolate. Consider adding prunes to scones, gingerbread, coffee cake, or any baked good that calls for dried fruit. If you're looking to make some holiday showstoppers, like a fruit cake you make ahead of time, keep prunes in mind when you're assembling the dried fruit you need. They add just the right texture and flavor. Be sure to check out the California Prunes website at californiaprunes.org for recipes and more. That's california prunes.org.
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Now back to our guest. So now I can't wait to dive into your black cake recipe. Can you describe it for us?
Angela Price:
So it's a cake that ... I say it's a two-step process. You kind of don't get up in the morning and decide you're making a black cake. You kind of have to do some proprietary work. You have to buy the dried ingredients, and then they're ground and aged in rum before you actually make the cake. So you can either steep your fruits or you can just, after aging for a long time, you can just go ahead and bake the cake.
It's used for weddings, it's used for christenings, anniversary parties. It's used in every type of celebration throughout the entire Caribbean region. I often call it the Rolls Royce of cakes. It's something that we celebrate so much, and I think it was really critical for us to share. And that's why we have spent so much time just doing a lot of sampling and building, because of the legacy.
Jessie Sheehan:
And is it the type of cake that you might even just have on the counter? Like you might make it just because you want to have it around? Or is it, because it takes so long and because it has this celebratory kind of nature, it's usually done for an event as opposed to, "Oh, I'm craving fruitcake?"
Angela Price:
Right. You are correct about that. It was just always for Christmas, always for weddings, or a celebration of sorts. And that was one of the things that I wanted to change. So we always offered it throughout the entire year.
We do a lot of weddings, we do black cake for wedding favors and parties. So we have varying sizes, like minis and bunts and hearts.
Jessie Sheehan:
And are the hearts like tiny, little heart shaped ...
Angela Price:
They are.
Jessie Sheehan:
And that's the thing that Hulu was buying for ...
Angela Price:
Yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
Oh, I love, love, love, love. Love.
I know the history and the origins are a little shaky about black cake. Like I've read that maybe the Europeans influenced the evolution, maybe brought it to the islands, but that it's also found in some African countries at this point.
Angela Price:
It is.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah.
Angela Price:
I found out a long time ago that Nigeria makes a very similar cake. It was derived from the English pudding when the Caribbean was being colonized. They then started to bake the cake as opposed to steaming it. That's typically how it's done in England.
What I found out ... We actually got an order from ... The librarian at Harvard called, and yes, they ordered two sheet cakes because Emily Dickinson had a black cake recipe that they have there from the 1800s. I couldn't believe it.
Jessie Sheehan:
Oh my gosh. I love that. And they were doing some kind of Emily Dickinson celebration?
Angela Price:
Every December they do a Emily Dickinson celebration with black cake, and so they bought our sheet cakes this year.
Jessie Sheehan:
Oh my gosh. I love a sheet cake.
Angela Price:
Do you?
Jessie Sheehan:
Yes.
Angela Price:
Oh my God.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah. I just thought it looked so ... Just a square of that dense, moist black cake. I loved it.
So first things first, we're going to prepare the fruit mixture, which is soaked fruits and nuts, if you want. We're going to mince some raisins.
Now, again, I listened to this, or I saw on YouTube, this fabulous opportunity you had when you baked with Al Roker.
Angela Price:
Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
And he said something about the raisins being Chilean.
Angela Price:
Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
I wondered, is that still the case? Are you getting a special raisin, or at this point ...
Angela Price:
We do not anymore. And what we were doing at that time, we were making a Dundee cake.
Jessie Sheehan:
Ah. So it's different.
Angela Price:
Yeah. So it's slightly different. And we were using Chilean raisins for a Dundee cake, which is really like a light fruit cake. Again, Jamaicans call it Dundee. Barbadians call it a light fruit cake.
Jessie Sheehan:
Okay. So we're going to mince some raisins, some currants, some prunes. And I love prunes. And then we're going to add some candied glace cherries?
Angela Price:
Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
I looked at that online. It's like a candied cherry, yes?
Angela Price:
Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
Do you make them or is that a product you can buy?
Angela Price:
You can just buy. Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
Okay, great. So you buy that in the grocery store. And then some mixed peel. Is that like lemon and lime?
Angela Price:
An orange peel.
Jessie Sheehan:
Ah, an orange. Nice.
Angela Price:
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Jessie Sheehan:
And I just wondered, how small are we mincing? Like super tiny, or is it more like chopping?
Angela Price:
It varies. And I guess it depends on the pallet of the person making the cake, whether they want to have it chunky or whether they want to have it smooth.
Jessie Sheehan:
What do you prefer?
Angela Price:
Smooth.
Jessie Sheehan:
Smooth. Love that. And I wondered, can you use different fruit? Could you throw in apricots or dates, or are those the traditional ...
Angela Price:
Those are the traditional fruits.
Jessie Sheehan:
Okay.
Angela Price:
You know, currents. Those are the things that you usually use.
Jessie Sheehan:
And those are just like little dried black currents, yes?
Angela Price:
Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah.
Angela Price:
But a lot of people have added things. I know that my husband's aunt, she would often use brandy in her black cake.
Jessie Sheehan:
Oh.
Angela Price:
Yeah. So you can do different things with it and create different flavors.
Jessie Sheehan:
So now we're going to add all of the minced fruit to some rum. And I wondered, is it dark or is it light? Is it Caribbean rum? What do you like to use?
Angela Price:
Well, it is Caribbean rum. Again, dark or light, depending on how strong you want to have your cake. White rum or you could have dark rum. So we use dark rum.
Jessie Sheehan:
You use dark. Okay.
Angela Price:
Yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
And we're mixing this together maybe in a large bowl?
Angela Price:
Yeah. A metal bowl.
Jessie Sheehan:
Okay. And we're going to add some powdered all-spice and nutmeg and cloves, and some vanilla and almond extracts.
Angela Price:
Mm-hmm.
Jessie Sheehan:
Are the extracts from a special place?
Angela Price:
They're from Barbados.
Jessie Sheehan:
And some chopped nuts. And you say that those are optional. Is that because of allergies or is that because it's not traditional to put nuts in a fruit cake?
Angela Price:
Oh, it is traditional, but we decided not to with our recipe, and only if someone asks. Because there's so many nut allergies around now, and so you have to be so careful.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yes, yes, yes.
Angela Price:
So we do not use nuts in the main production of our cake.
Jessie Sheehan:
If someone asks for them, is that possible?
Angela Price:
Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
Oh, so you can bring them into your production space.
Angela Price:
Oh yeah. Mm-hmm.
Jessie Sheehan:
And is there a particular type of nut? Like is it a walnut or a pecan?
Angela Price:
It is a walnut.
Jessie Sheehan:
Nice. Also, we're going to mix in some brown sugar and mix that all together. Are we using a wooden spoon? Are we using a spatula? We're doing both.
Angela Price:
Both.
Jessie Sheehan:
And what should I picture? Is it sort of ... Basically we're just trying to get all those nuts and fruit kind of covered with the rum and all the spices incorporated.
Angela Price:
Exactly. Mm-hmm.
Jessie Sheehan:
And then we are going to place it in either a glass container or an earthenware jar and cover it. Is that an airtight cover?
Angela Price:
It is an airtight cover, yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
If you were making one fruitcake, what's the size of the ... Sort of one of those really large ball jars, let's say?
Angela Price:
Mm-hmm.
Jessie Sheehan:
And we're going to allow the mixture to steep for three weeks at a minimum or longer.
Angela Price:
Yes. Mm-hmm.
Jessie Sheehan:
Talk to me about the length of time. How long are you guys going when you're making it professionally? How long would you do it if you were doing it at home?
Angela Price:
Yeah, so we do follow that where you go a minimum of three weeks for soaking, and then it's beyond that. A lot of times you can have it soaking for months and it just sits there. Some people who do it maybe once a year would have it soaking for an entire year before then.
Jessie Sheehan:
I was going to ask, if you know that someone's getting married in a year and you know that you want to make them a black cake, you might start when you find out that they got engaged.
Angela Price:
Absolutely. Yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love that.
Angela Price:
You know, you have aunties and grandmas, I mean, who are still baking black cake.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah. Do you have to stir it, or you just keep it sealed and don't touch it for the entire time?
Angela Price:
Right.
Jessie Sheehan:
You don't need to go in there.
Angela Price:
No.
Jessie Sheehan:
And what does the process do? Does it just kind of soften the fruit and then enrich it, or the fruit sort of absorbs the rum?
Angela Price:
Right, exactly. So the fruit is softened and it swells from the inclusion of the rum, and that's where it gets its rich flavor when you actually bake the cake.
Jessie Sheehan:
Three weeks later, or a year later, we're going to assemble our cake. So we're going to heat the oven to 275 degrees, which is a low temperature.
Angela Price:
Mm-hmm.
Jessie Sheehan:
Can you tell us why we do such a low temperature?
Angela Price:
Simply because the cake would burn if you had it higher,
Jessie Sheehan:
Right, because it has to bake for so long.
Angela Price:
It does.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah.
Angela Price:
And it's dense, so you have to make sure that the oven is really low.
Jessie Sheehan:
And now we're going to cook that fruit mixture that we just seeped with some water for about 15 minutes or so, stirring over a low heat.
Angela Price:
Mm-hmm.
Jessie Sheehan:
Can you tell us why we add the fruit to this water and cook it down?
Angela Price:
Well, what happens is it kind of shortens the baking time a bit.
Jessie Sheehan:
Because you've cooked the fruit a little bit already.
Angela Price:
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Jessie Sheehan:
Is that something that you came up with or does everyone sort of ...
Angela Price:
It's a choice that individuals make. Some people do it and some people don't.
Jessie Sheehan:
And also you said, I think, that it reduces the possibility of it burning because it will bake a little bit faster.
Angela Price:
Mm-hmm.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah.
Angela Price:
Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
And is there a particular kind of pan that we have mixed the fruit and the water together? Just a sauce pan?
Angela Price:
Yeah, just a stainless steel pan.
Jessie Sheehan:
Do we want the water to boil or to simmer?
Angela Price:
It depends on the individual doing it. If they want to have the fruit really soft, they're going to get that water really hot. And so it depends on how they want to have their fruit. Some people like chunks of fruits.
Jessie Sheehan:
Right. They want that texture, that chewiness.
Angela Price:
Yeah, the texture. And some people just don't even bother to.
Jessie Sheehan:
To do the water part.
Angela Price:
Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah.
Angela Price:
Mm-hmm.
Jessie Sheehan:
Oh, that's interesting.
So now we're going to cream some butter. And I wondered, is it unsalted or salted butter, or does it not matter?
Angela Price:
It doesn't matter.
Jessie Sheehan:
Okay.
Angela Price:
Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
And then is it room temperature butter, or ...
Angela Price:
It is.
Jessie Sheehan:
It's room temp butter.
We're going to cream that with some brown sugar. And are we using an electric mixer or are we doing this by hand?
Angela Price:
Well, you can use an electric mixer until the point where the fruit's added.
Jessie Sheehan:
So we have our stand mixer, let's say, with the paddle attachment.
Angela Price:
Mm-hmm.
Jessie Sheehan:
And then is it like medium speed or high speed?
Angela Price:
Yeah, you start with a basic recipe for cake.
Jessie Sheehan:
Okay.
Angela Price:
So however you would do your pound cake, you're going to start with a speed that gets you where you need to go.
Jessie Sheehan:
Where you need to be.
Angela Price:
Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
And now we're going to beat in our eggs one at a time, and then we're going to add in our cooked fruit mixture.
Can the fruit mixture be hot at this point, or should the fruit mixture come to room temperature?
Angela Price:
It should be at room temperature. For those people who like to do that, I think it is really important for it to be at room temperature.
Jessie Sheehan:
Okay. Perfect. I thought so, because otherwise I feel like it could melt the butter and ...
Angela Price:
Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah.
Then we're going to stir in some burnt sugar coloring, which is an ingredient that takes the cake from a brown cake to a black cake.
Angela Price:
Correct.
Jessie Sheehan:
Can you tell us a little bit about how we make a burnt sugar coloring?
Angela Price:
We just do it rarely with some brown sugar. You know, want to have it on the fire, and you are going to actually stir it until ...
Jessie Sheehan:
Kind of like a caramel almost?
Angela Price:
Yep, it is a caramel.
Jessie Sheehan:
Ah, nice, nice, nice. I love that. Burnt sugar coloring.
We're going to sift some all purpose flour, some baking powder and some salt. Do you like to use kosher salt or fine sea salt? Do you have a salt preference when you're making this cake?
Angela Price:
No, it's just any salt.
Jessie Sheehan:
So we sift our flour, our baking powder, our salt. And we're sifting it, do you have a special tool or do you just use a sieve, like a special straining tool?
Angela Price:
Yeah, you just use a sieve. You could just use a sieve-
Jessie Sheehan:
Perfect.
Angela Price:
... To sift the flour.
Jessie Sheehan:
Perfect.
So then we're going to sift that flour. We're going to mix it together with the eggs and the sugar mixture.
And at this point, have we taken maybe the bowl off of the stand mixer and we're just working by hand?
Angela Price:
Exactly.
Jessie Sheehan:
We're working by hand. Once we add that fruit, everything is by hand.
Angela Price:
Right. Correct.
Jessie Sheehan:
And sort of using a spatula or a wooden spoon?
Angela Price:
Mm-hmm.
Jessie Sheehan:
Do you have a preference on which one you would use?
Angela Price:
Well, you need them both because you have to use the wooden spoon to stir and you need the spatula to make sure that you get the edges folded in.
Jessie Sheehan:
And that fold. Yes.
And now it's time to bake the cake. So we're going to prepare our baking tin. Is there a particular size? Is it like a round cake pan?
Angela Price:
Yeah, it usually is. Eight inch or nine inch-
Jessie Sheehan:
Perfect.
Angela Price:
... Pan.
Jessie Sheehan:
Perfect.
We're going to grease the pan.
Angela Price:
Yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
Do you like to use a cooking spray, or do you like to grease with butter?
Angela Price:
Both sometimes.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah.
Angela Price:
I use both sometimes. Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah. Just to be extra sure that it's going to come out?
Angela Price:
Yes. Exactly.
Jessie Sheehan:
And then we're going to line the cake pan with two layers of waxed paper.
Angela Price:
Mm-hmm.
Jessie Sheehan:
First of all, how come two? And also, do you ever use parchment paper, or-
Angela Price:
We do sometimes use parchment paper.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yep. But the two layers is just to be extra sure that your cake releases.
Angela Price:
Exactly.
Jessie Sheehan:
Do they tend to stick to the pan, or not if you prepare them properly?
Angela Price:
They don't because you have to make sure that the pan is properly greased.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yes.
And now we're going to transfer the batter to the pan. It should be about one inch from the top.
I would think with such a dense cake, it might not rise that much?
Angela Price:
It does not rise that much. Yeah. So you're not going to have a cake that's going to fluff up like a pound cake.
Jessie Sheehan:
Even with that baking powder, it still doesn't get much higher than what you pour into the pan.
Angela Price:
Exactly. Mm-hmm.
Jessie Sheehan:
Got it.
And we're going to bake it for two to three hours.
Angela Price:
Correct.
Jessie Sheehan:
And we're going to test it with a skewer, which I love. I always use a skewer, because I like that you have those little kind of rough edges of a skewer so you can really see.
Angela Price:
Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
And if you do a toothpick, it's too short.
Angela Price:
It is.
Jessie Sheehan:
So are we looking for the skewer to be clean, or do you want a moist crumb? What do you like to see to-
Angela Price:
It should be clean actually. Yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
Okay. Clean.
Now we're going to prepare the soak. Should we start to prepare the soak before the cake comes out so that we're ready to pour as soon as it comes out of the oven?
Angela Price:
No, you could let it cool a bit.
Jessie Sheehan:
Okay. Perfect.
So we're going to prepare the soak. We're going to combine port wine and some Falernum?
Angela Price:
Falernum is a kin to Barbados.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah. I googled it, so now I know what it is. It has some lime and some cloves and sugar and ginger and almond eggs. It sounds delicious.
Angela Price:
Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
Is it alcoholic in and of itself?
Angela Price:
It is, but it's more sweet than it is alcoholic.
Jessie Sheehan:
And would people drink it like with an ice cube by itself?
Angela Price:
Right. Exactly. Or you add Kola Tonic. There's this thing called Kola Tonic in Barbados that goes also well with Falernum.
Jessie Sheehan:
Sounds delicious.
So we combine some port wine and some Falernum with some rum.
Angela Price:
Mm-hmm.
Jessie Sheehan:
Are you usually using Falernum in the bakery when you're making these cakes, or are you using port wine? Well, both.
Angela Price:
Oh, both.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah.
Angela Price:
Oh, so it's port wine, Falernum and rum. Yes.
Jessie Sheehan:
Ah.
And are you cooking it or just mixing it together?
Angela Price:
Oh, just mixing it.
Jessie Sheehan:
Mixing it together. And you said it can rest a little while you combine these ingredients.
Angela Price:
Mm-hmm.
Jessie Sheehan:
Once the cake's removed from the oven, you're going to prick it all over with a skewer and slowly pour that soak over the cake until it's completely absorbed, yes?
Angela Price:
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Jessie Sheehan:
Love that.
And then I love this. You're going to keep the cake in the pan with the soak for three to four days.
Angela Price:
Correct.
Jessie Sheehan:
I love that. And that's just to really make sure that it absorbs all of that soak.
Angela Price:
Right. It continues to age. Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah. I love that.
Angela Price:
Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
I was thinking about that. Like sometimes when I make a lemon cake, I'll poke and I'll put in a lemon syrup, but it's never occurred to me to wait several days. I wonder if you could do that waiting with cakes other than a black cake or if you should not do that. But I was just intrigued by the idea.
And are you covering the pan for the three to four days?
Angela Price:
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah. Okay.
Then you're going to remove the cake from the pan, and you're going to cover it with a layer of almond icing or marzipan.
And then are you icing that with royal icing, or is that another choice, the royal icing?
Angela Price:
The royal icing is a second choice. Usually you would put the marzipan on to stop the cake from bleeding through.
I mean, a lot of times this is done for weddings primarily, and you would put marzipan on it first, and then you would have that dry, and then you would add-
Jessie Sheehan:
The royal icing.
Angela Price:
... The royal icing.
Jessie Sheehan:
And do you tend to frost the cakes or do you-
Angela Price:
I do not.
Jessie Sheehan:
Okay.
Angela Price:
Because we're mail order, we ship our cakes all over the world, we can all of our cakes. We wrap and can all of our cakes, seal them. So we really don't do too much decorating except for primarily weddings or celebrations.
Jessie Sheehan:
So if someone local is having a wedding and then you're making the cakes, you would decorate them for them?
Angela Price:
Oh yeah, we absolutely can. We've done quite a few wedding cakes this summer.
Jessie Sheehan:
Can you tell us, I was hoping, just a little bit about some of the other recipes. Like your rum cake versus your black cake. Can you tell us what the difference is between those two?
Angela Price:
Well, the difference is primarily that our rum cakes have rum on it after it's baked more so than the black cake. Because we don't really put too much of the mixture on our black cake, but we really soak our rum cake.
Jessie Sheehan:
Still with the Falernum or just do rum on top?
Angela Price:
No, it's different.
Jessie Sheehan:
Ah. Delicious.
And then the Dundee cake ... Or it's also called a Scottish fruit cake?
Angela Price:
It may be. I know it as a light fruit cake.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah. Your mom called it a light fruit cake.
Angela Price:
Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah.
There was a funny moment in that YouTube video with Al Roker where he says to you, "That's not light. There's a half a pound of butter in there."
Angela Price:
I know, I know. And he kept pouring it on and on.
Jessie Sheehan:
That's hilarious.
Just to make it clear, the brown cake is like a black cake, save for that you don't put in that burnt sugar.
Angela Price:
Burnt sugar. That's the flavor difference. Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
And I assume that not only changes the color, does it also change the flavor, or do they still end up tasting very similarly?
Angela Price:
The taste is very similar, but some people's palette would prefer a brown cake as opposed to a black cake.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah.
And do you have a favorite cake that you love to make or that your team loves to make?
And is there a team of people helping you do this? I hope so.
Angela Price:
We do have a team. Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
And does everyone love black cake the most, or is there ...
Angela Price:
Most of them prefer to have black cake.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah.
Angela Price:
But we do have customers that prefer rum cake and not black cake.
Jessie Sheehan:
And then I also read, but I didn't see this on the website, that maybe did you used to make a coconut cake or there were a couple of other options?
Angela Price:
Yeah, so we made coconut bread.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yum.
Angela Price:
It's a coconut bread.
Jessie Sheehan:
Kind of like a pound cake, should I picture?
Angela Price:
No, it's like a bread.
Jessie Sheehan:
Oh, okay.
Angela Price:
It's a loaf. It's made with coconut, and then we have this little coconut mixture we put in the middle of it. It's really delicious, but we've kind of had to take it off of our website, unfortunately.
Sometimes we do a German chocolate cake.
Jessie Sheehan:
I read that as well. Yeah, that sounds delicious.
Angela Price:
Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yeah. That must be harder to ship, I assume.
Angela Price:
It is, but it offers someone something that's not alcoholic. And it's really posing a slight challenge for us at the moment too, because we don't get that many orders for it. Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
Yes. So you want to do the thing that you get the orders for.
Angela Price:
Yeah. Exactly.
Jessie Sheehan:
I understand.
Angela Price:
Yeah.
Jessie Sheehan:
I understand.
Well, thank you so much for chatting with me today, Angela. And I just want to say that you are my cherry pie.
Angela Price:
Thank you so much, Jessie. It was really wonderful, and I appreciate the opportunity to share.
Jessie Sheehan:
That's it for today's show. Thank you to Plugrà Premium European Style Butter and California Prunes for their support. Don't forget to subscribe to She's My Cherry Pie on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen, and tell your baking buddies about us. She's My Cherry Pie is a production of The Cherry Bombe Podcast Network and is recorded at CityVox Studio in Manhattan. Our producers are Kerry Diamond and Catherine Baker, our associate producer is Jenna Sadhu, and our editorial assistant is Londyn Crenshaw. Thank you so much for listening to She's My Cherry Pie, and happy baking.