Currants and Rum

It was the penultimate Sunday in October and I was unwinding after an enjoyable catch up with a couple of close friends, who were expecting a new daughter, the previous evening and the shock of having to don a boiler suit and oxygen mask and boiler suit to salvage my fire-damaged office towards the end of the previous working week. As always after these kind of events I headed for the kitchen to try and make something new.

I had forgotten to buy raisins to go with the rum I found at the supermarket so instead of rum and raisin slices I elected to make rum and currant slices.

The soundtrack to the rather long process of preparation was Steely Dan's 1980 album Gaucho, a record that although highly listenable with the odd moment of inspiration does suffer a little from over rehearsed songs and the fact that its composers were taking a family-sized amount of Class A drugs during the recording. For the second part of cooking I listened to John and (his then wife) Beverley Martyn's turn of the sixties offering Stormbringer! an album which contains some of John Martyn's best early songs such as the powerful slow-burning title track, the haunting harmonies of Traffic Light Lady and energy of Go out and Get It. Beverley Martyn also does her bit with above-par singing on several songs including the excellent self-penned Sweet Honesty.

I greased a 20cm by 20cm baking tin, that had high sides which were around 10cm tall, with a paper towel covered in margarine. In a bowl I mixed together four tablespoons of dark rum, which I had been asked for ID on when I purchased it the night before even though I am well over the legal drinking age, with two and a half ounces of currants. I then left the bowl to one side so that the rum would soak into the currants and make them bloated.

I then put seven ounces of dark chocolate and put them in a heat proof bowl with two and a half ounces of margarine. I put the bowl on top of a pan of boiling water and waited while the heat from the boiling water melted the margarine and the chocolate into a rich, dark liquid. After I took the bowl of chocolate and margarine off the hob I added nine fluid ounces of plain Greek Yoghurt and four and a half ounces of sugar to the heatproof bowl and stirred them together until I had a very thick mixture.

I sifted four ounces of plain flour into a separate bowl and then added the currants, rum and the rather gooey chocolate mixture together with three beaten eggs. Once these items were properly combined using a strong metal tablespoon I poured them into the greased metal tin and spread the mixture equally throughout the tin. I cooked it in my oven at 170 degrees, 180 degrees if you don't have a fan oven, for about half an hour. As always with these type of dishes I knew it was ready when I poked a skewer through the middle of it and it came out clean. Once it had cooled I cut the sponge I had made into bite sized cubes.

Despite it being unorthodox to use currants with rum the combination worked well and the dark rum, Greek Yoghurt and dark chocolate gave the cake a very smoky taste which was counterbalanced by the sweetness of the sugar which stopped the smoky taste being too overpowering.

All sliced up and ready to eat.

Strong tasting but still tasty enough.