Christmas Fruit Cake

[Pierogi Princess]

Please help me my forum friends and chefs, my husband love fruit cake, his dad made it every Christmas. I have tried two years in a row now and have failed. He does not have the recipe and his dad is dec'd, I would love to make him a great fruit cake. All he remembers is that he basted it with some kind of brandy or rum mixture for two months.

Please help!

 

[Girl49]

Christmas Fruitcake

Princess: You have come to the right place!! Here's my recipe. I think it's the best I've ever had; it's my personal adaptation of the 1984 McCall's Cookbook's Dearborn Inn Fruitcake. Enjoy!

Ingredients
1 ½ cups dark raisins
1 ½ cups golden raisins
1 ½ cups currants
1 cup coarsely chopped dates
8 oz. candied orange and lemon peel, coarsely chopped (homemade highly recommended; good recipe for this in Joy of Cooking)
1 cup mixed red and green candied cherries OR 1 cup dried tart red Michigan cherries, whole or chopped
¾ cup peeled and finely chopped fresh Granny Smith apple
½ cup peeled and finely chopped fresh orange
¾ cup coarsely chopped slivered blanched almonds
¾ cup chopped walnuts
3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground mace
¾ teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup butter
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
6 large eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons molasses
3 tablespoons rum, brandy, or bourbon
Additional spirits for soaking cheesecloth

Preparation
1. Lightly grease a 10-inch tube-type pan. Line pan with parchment paper, and lightly grease the paper.
2. In the biggest bowl you have (or even a soup pot), combine all of the dried and fresh fruits. Sift a quarter cup of flour over the mixture, and toss to mix well.
3. Sift rest of flour with salt, baking powder, and spices; set aside. Preheat oven to 275 degrees.
4. In large bowl of electric mixer, at medium speed, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs until well combined. Beat in molasses and spirits.
5. With wooden spoon, stir fruit-nut mixture into butter-egg mixture until well combined. Stir in flour mixture to combine well.
6. Turn out into prepared pan, filling pan evenly and making sure surface is level.
7. Bake about two and a half hours, or until cake tester or tookpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs. Be careful not to over-bake, or cake will be dry.
8. Let cool completely in pan on wire rack. Remove from pan, and peel off parchment paper.

To age the cake
Make the cake at least two weeks (several is better) ahead of desired serving time.
Place 1/3 cup spirits in a bowl, and soak in it a generously sized piece of cheesecloth. Wrap the saturated cheesecloth around the cooled cake, and cover with foil. Store in airtight container).
Re-soak the cheesecloth as necessary to keep it lightly moist.

Makes one 6-pound cake.

 

[Bolas De Fraile]

Good recipe G/49 this is probably the most made christmas cake recipe in the uk http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/cuisine/european/english/the-classic-christmas-cake.html

 

[Caslon]

Fruit cakes. Fresh baked, they must be awesome.

 

[Addie]

My first husband (the chef) made a fruit cake one year, wrapped it in cheesecloth and every month he opened the tin and at the beginninig poked holes in it and then each month sprinkled it with Scotch from Scotland. Come the next Christmas, his friends were only too happy to help him eat it. No thanks, I will pass. I don't know what the recipe was, but it was the only fruit cake I ever served in my home.

 

[Pierogi Princess]

Princess: You have come to the right place!! Here's my recipe. I think it's the best I've ever had; it's my personal adaptation of the 1984 McCall's Cookbook's Dearborn Inn Fruitcake. Enjoy!

Ingredients
1 ½ cups dark raisins
1 ½ cups golden raisins
1 ½ cups currants
1 cup coarsely chopped dates
8 oz. candied orange and lemon peel, coarsely chopped (homemade highly recommended; good recipe for this in Joy of Cooking)
1 cup mixed red and green candied cherries OR 1 cup dried tart red Michigan cherries, whole or chopped
¾ cup peeled and finely chopped fresh Granny Smith apple
½ cup peeled and finely chopped fresh orange
¾ cup coarsely chopped slivered blanched almonds
¾ cup chopped walnuts
3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground mace
¾ teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup butter
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
6 large eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons molasses
3 tablespoons rum, brandy, or bourbon
Additional spirits for soaking cheesecloth

Preparation
1. Lightly grease a 10-inch tube-type pan. Line pan with parchment paper, and lightly grease the paper.
2. In the biggest bowl you have (or even a soup pot), combine all of the dried and fresh fruits. Sift a quarter cup of flour over the mixture, and toss to mix well.
3. Sift rest of flour with salt, baking powder, and spices; set aside. Preheat oven to 275 degrees.
4. In large bowl of electric mixer, at medium speed, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs until well combined. Beat in molasses and spirits.
5. With wooden spoon, stir fruit-nut mixture into butter-egg mixture until well combined. Stir in flour mixture to combine well.
6. Turn out into prepared pan, filling pan evenly and making sure surface is level.
7. Bake about two and a half hours, or until cake tester or tookpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs. Be careful not to over-bake, or cake will be dry.
8. Let cool completely in pan on wire rack. Remove from pan, and peel off parchment paper.

To age the cake
Make the cake at least two weeks (several is better) ahead of desired serving time.
Place 1/3 cup spirits in a bowl, and soak in it a generously sized piece of cheesecloth. Wrap the saturated cheesecloth around the cooled cake, and cover with foil. Store in airtight container).
Re-soak the cheesecloth as necessary to keep it lightly moist.

Makes one 6-pound cake.

Girl49, I cannot thank you enough, although Christmas is over, I will be making this cake now, I cannot wait to try it and will post the results. Thank you so much, you have not idea how much I appreciate you sharing your recipe with me. Happy New Year, may your year be blessed with health, love, joy and wealth.

 

[FezzikTheCook]

I have enjoyed some fine, rum-soaked fruitcakes, but for the most part, they have been dried-out crud-loaves with (repellent) candied fruits.

 

[Constance]

The above is a dark fruitcake...sounds good, but I've never made one. The following recipe is my mother's light (as in color) fruitcake, and it is very rich, moist and delicious.

Norma Jeanne’s Fruitcake

1 cup sugar
1/2 lb butter
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
5 large eggs
1 oz vanilla
1 oz lemon extract
3/4 lb. candied cherries
1 lb. candied pineapple
4 cups pecans

Mix flour and baking powder with butter. Mix eggs and extracts with sugar. Combine. Add fruit last. Grease and flour 2 loaf pans or 1 bundt pan.
Bake at 200 until toothpick comes out clean...about 2 hours for a large cake.

Cool, remove from pans, and wrap in cheesecloth that has been soaked in apricot (or other fruity) brandy.
Store in airtight container for 1 month, opening lid and adding a little more brandy once a week. Keep in cool place.

Mom and I both always made this the weekend after Thanksgiving. She cooked it in 1 lb. coffee cans for Christmas gifts, and mailed it in the can.

What I always found amusing was that my second MIL, an adamant teetotaler, loved my fruitcake. I told her it had liquor in it, but her answer was that all fruitcake did, but that the alcohol all evaporated off.

 

[Pierogi Princess]

The above is a dark fruitcake...sounds good, but I've never made one. The following recipe is my mother's light (as in color) fruitcake, and it is very rich, moist and delicious.

Norma Jeanne’s Fruitcake

1 cup sugar
1/2 lb butter
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
5 large eggs
1 oz vanilla
1 oz lemon extract
3/4 lb. candied cherries
1 lb. candied pineapple
4 cups pecans

Mix flour and baking powder with butter. Mix eggs and extracts with sugar. Combine. Add fruit last. Grease and flour 2 loaf pans or 1 bundt pan.
Bake at 200 until toothpick comes out clean...about 2 hours for a large cake.

Cool, remove from pans, and wrap in cheesecloth that has been soaked in apricot (or other fruity) brandy.
Store in airtight container for 1 month, opening lid and adding a little more brandy once a week. Keep in cool place.

Mom and I both always made this the weekend after Thanksgiving. She cooked it in 1 lb. coffee cans for Christmas gifts, and mailed it in the can.

What I always found amusing was that my second MIL, an adamant teetotaler, loved my fruitcake. I told her it had liquor in it, but her answer was that all fruitcake did, but that the alcohol all evaporated off.

Looks like I will be making two Christmas Fruit Cakes this weekend, I am so excited. Thank you soooo much!

 

[Bolas De Fraile]

I have posted these pics before.I make the fruit cake and marzipan my wife does the decoration.

 

[Constance]

Wow! Beautiful!

 

[Pierogi Princess]

Very beautiful, you are both obviously very talented. Mine is just gonna have fruit and nuts on top - boring!

 

[Bolas De Fraile]

Thank you both, its really my wife who is the artist I just provide the flat surfaces.

 

[Pierogi Princess]

Team effort in cooking is great, love cooking in the kitchen with my hubby. Can't wait for the fruit cakes to be "cured" and then tried by him. Keeping my fingers crossed.