What is a Jamaican Dessert?

Two dear friends of mine recently started a supper club and asked me to join. The deal is supposed to be that once a month they pick a theme and then one person is assigned to drinks, one to appetizers, one to side, one to entree, and one to dessert. So far we have only done it once and the theme they picked was Jamaica and I drew dessert. Even after doing a decent amount of research, I was still kind of at a loss because I needed something that would be, at least, somewhat portable. Most of the suggestions for traditional Jamaican desserts were some type of fruitcake that looked really unappealing or homemade ice creams with fresh fruit. The latter sounded great but I have no churner, and the availability of fresh tropical fruits is mediocre at best in the NE Rainbow.

In the end, I took a bunch of ingredients that are stereotypically associated with Jamaica and made the following cake which had too much rum in it...but it was pretty. I'll retrieve a picture to insert later. In the meantime try:

Like A Carrot Cake Only Drunker - serves 8

4 egg whites
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
pinch salt
1/2 cup shortening
1 3/4 cup white sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup Meyers rum (originally I used 1 1/2 cups and that was way too much, but whatever floats your boat. you could use light rum too.)
8 oz. fresh or canned pineapple (fresh probably tastes better but canned adds more moisture)
1/3 cup coconut, flaked, plus extra for toasting

Frosting:
8 oz. cream cheese (softened)
1 cup white sugar
Pinch salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups whipped heavy cream


Preheat oven to 350, grease and flour two round cake pans.
Separate four egg whites into a bowl.
Sift 2 cups flour, 1 tsp. powder, ½ tsp soda and pinch salt.
Beat ½ cup shortening, 1 ¾ cup of sugar, 2 tsp. vanilla.
Pour rum and 8 oz pineapple chunks and some coconut into wet ingredients.
Then add egg whites, and flour mixture. Beat.

Bake cakes for 25-30 minutes until tops become golden. Cool and invert.

Put 1/3 of the frosting in between the two cake layers and finish off the top and sides of the cake with the remaining 2/3.



Toast coconut at 250 for about 10 minutes until golden and sprinkle atop the cake.

Note: You could definitely substitute butter for the shortening in this recipe, but I figured it had plenty of animal fat as it was and I had some Crisco on hand.

Next month I am doing Lebanese appetizers for supper club and am certainly open to suggestions.