Black Cake, Sorrel and New Year's Wishes

For my Creole family, New Year's always involved gumbo, souse, black-eyed peas and turnip greens. I'd have nothing to do with any of these, save the greens because in New Year's lore, the peas represent the coins you'll recieve in the new year and the greens symbolize the dollars and who doesn't want more dollars? Once I discovered the Caribbean New Year's tradition of black cake, and sorrel, I added these delicacies to my New Year's meal. An evoulution of the English plum pudding, black cake is similar to fruit cake only more moist and with ground up fruit.  The fruit is soaked for months in rum, sometimes even a year and the mixed with spices, molasses and brown sugar. It's heavy and fragrant and I confess that I eat it all year round, not just on New Year's.

Sorrell is a spicy, vibrant red drink made from the hand-picked sepal of the sorrell or roselle plant, which is a species of hibiscus. I also drink it all year round. Traditionally, the leaves are mixed with ginger, cinnamon and other spices for a refreshing holiday drink. Any proper  holiday visit to a Caribbean house always involves a slice of black cake and a glass of sorrel or ginger beer. Tasting these treats  almost guarantees a happy and fulfilling new year, which is my wish for all of my readers, even if you don't get a chance to sample black cake and sorrel!

This post is part of Wanderlust and Lipstick's Wanderfood Wednesdays, go  over and check out the other treats from around  the world.