Recipe: Key West Pirate's Cake

KEY WEST PIRATE'S CAKE

2 cups sifted all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 oz semisweet chocolate
1 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 sticks sweet butter, at room temp.
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 cups toasted pecans, chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a tube pan and dust with un-seasoned bread crumbs (like Contadina).

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
Melt the chocolates, either in top of double boiler or in microwave.

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter until fluffy; beat in extracts and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time.
Gradually add sifted ingredients.
Remove 1 cup of batter and place in a small bowl. Add the 1/4 tsp baking soda and melted chocolates.
Use a teaspoon to place the chocolate batter in the bottom of the pan. With the bottom of the spoon spread it to make a rather smooth layer.

Mix the pecans with the remaining batter and pour it evenly over the chocolate layer. Smooth the top.
Bake for 1 hour.

While the cake is baking, make the syrup.

SYRUP:
1/2 cup water
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup rum
2 Tbs lime juice
Grated zest of 1 lime

Place water and sugar in a saucepan and cook over moderate heat until it comes to a boil; let boil without stirring for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand until almost completely cool; stir in the rum, lime juice, and zest.

When cake is done, do not remove from pan. Let stand for 15 minutes.
Spoon or brush the syrup over the cake until it is all absorbed. Then, turn cake out onto a serving plate.

Note: when you cut the cake, you will be surprised to see what the chocolate mixture did!