Recipe requested:
This is the base recipe, for any fruit:
Batter:
3/4 cup water
3 T flax seed ground
1/2 cup WW flour
12 oz date or fruit paste (in a food processor, dates or prunes or any dehydrated fruit soaked in water)
1 t. vanilla
2 lbs 11 oz fruit and nuts
(and chocolate)
dehydrated cherries
craisins
raisins (probably using golden raisins)
currents
dark chocolate bars, chopped
1/3 of lbs is nuts, hickory nuts and or walnuts, and chocolate
Soak the dehydrated fruit in 12 oz rum for a few hours before beginning (or overnight)
Mix together with batter, press, and smooth into 2 6-inch cake pans, lined with parchment. Press decorative nuts or fruit into the top. Bake 250 deg F for 2.5-3 hours. Wrap and refrigerate or freeze.
*note: using the spiced rum seemed to bake off a little better than bourbon. The drier the fruit, use more rum, the moister the fruit, use less rum.
That recipe above is the base recipe (fruits and nuts and chocolate can be switched out, to whatever kind of dried fruits you want to use like dried mango, peaches, pineapple, apple, blueberries, banana, or candied fruits. Skip the chocolate for most of them.
This year's chocolate cherry fruit cakes.
1 lb craisins
1 lb candied cherries
14 oz dried currants
15 oz golden raisins
3 lbs of dehydrated cherries
16 oz bourbon
marinated for a day--so that all the drier fruit can soak up the bourbon.
1 lb chopped walnuts
1/2 lb chopped blanched almonds (also used whole blanched for decorations)
18 oz chopped 1/4 inch and smaller, dark chocolate bars (75-85% cocoa)
The batter for all of it:
3 cups of date paste
1 and 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
9 T ground flax seed
3 T vanilla extract
1 cup + water until it makes a batter (approx 1.5 cups water)
Mix the batter with the fruit/nuts/chocolate. It should be clumpy and not runny.
They were packed and pressed into 8 small 5-6-7 inch cakepans/casseroles/glass bowls lined with parchment. Press blanched almonds into the top for decorations. Fold the edges of the parchment over the tops.
Baked for 2.5 hours at 250 deg F, cooled, wrapped in saran then foil, frozen.