In Search of a Classic Holiday Fruitcake

And we have a fruitcake! I’m getting a head start on Christmas baking by making “Classic Holiday Fruitcake.” A good fruitcake recipe has alluded me, but this season I had a revelation. I figured out what I’ve been doing wrong all these years. So here is my very own version of a “Classic Holiday Fruitcake.” Ever since my father brought home stacks of fruitcake left over from Ruritan Club fundraisers, I’ve been in search of a good fruitcake recipe. My father wasn’t a very good salesman and he never sold his allotment of fruitcakes. They went into our home freezer. Plus, I never liked the fruitcakes. I’ve always mused that I could bake something much better. After trying countless recipes over the years, I finally have a fruitcake recipe which I like. It contains my favorite fruits and has a bright ginger and citrus flavor. Oh yes, I added those green, red and yellow red pieces of candied fruit to some of my fruitcake batches. Plus a little rum in the dried fruit concoction helps, too. Watch out, you may become fruitcake lover after trying my recipe.

Fruitcake revelation!

What was my fruitcake revelation? I figured out that you have to actually like the dried fruit, candied fruit and spices which go into the fruitcake. The fruit conconction has to taste good — so, so good that you could eat it out of a bowl with a spoon for a snack. And the cake batter has to be mighty good too — I made a molassas ginger spice cake which could be a featured cake without any of the fruitcake fruit.

With that in mind, I chose a rather non-traditional mix of fruit. My final fruitcake recipe is dense, sticky with bright ginger and citrus flavor. For fruit, I added raisins — both traditional and golden — dates, dried cherries and a fresh tart green apple (not shown). I omitted prunes, figs and apricots (these overwhelm the other flavors in the cake). For spices I omitted cinnamon, mace, allspice and cloves. This isn’t a spice cake — it is a fruitcake. However, I did add candied ginger for a “bright” flavor to the fruit mix and ground ginger and nutmeg to the cake batter.

Plus, a fruitcake is not “real” without those green, red and yellow specks of candied citrus fruit and cherries. These little gems are optional; they went into the batter in some of my fruitcakes. Otherwise, I replaced these gems with dried orange peel.

Other ingredients included molasses (not shown) for a robust, deep flavor and to give the cake a golden color. A few chopped pecans made it into the batter, too. Orange juice was the liquid ingredient in the cake recipe. I added the dried orange peel in recipes where I omitted the candied citrus fruit and cherries. A Granny Smith apple, finely chopped, helped to add a tart flavor to balance the sweet dried fruit.

Making the recipe:

This cake recipe is easy to make if you get all the ingredients prepped ahead of time. The prep includes:

• To get things started, soak the dried fruit in rum and water overnight. This plumps up the fruit. Yes, don’t forget the rum.

The next day:

• Peel and chop the fresh, tart apple, chop the pecans and candied ginger. Add those ingredients to the dried (and now rehydrated) fruit mixture. Add in the candied citrus fruit if you are using this. Otherwise add a teaspoon of dried orange peel.

• Mix up the cake batter and bake the cakes. I use the traditional method of mixing the cake batter which uses an electric mixer to beat up everything. Here are the ingredients (except for ground nutmeg and ginger). This is a large recipe — it makes 2 standard size loaf pans.

• Cream the butter and sugar using an electric mixer, add the eggs and molasses.
• Beat in the flour mixture (sifted flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and ground ginger) alternately with orange juice just until combined. Don’t overbeat. Last fold in the fruit and pecan mixture.

• Spread into well-oiled loaf pans. On my first batch, I used two 5″ x 9″ loaf pans. The second time, I used six mini-sized 5-3/4″ x 3-3/4″ disposable aluminum loaf pans.

• Bake the cake in a 300 degree temperature oven for about 40 minutes. I used a middle or top oven rack. The cakes should spring back on top when lightly depressed and pull away from the edges of the pan. (Check the mini-loaves after 30 minutes.)

The fruitcakes don’t rise much — what you put in the pans is what you get when baked. So, for the mini-loaf pans – I filled the batter all the way to the top of the pans.

• Last, cool the fruitcakes on a wire rack. All these fruitcakes can be made ahead of time and frozen.

This cake recipe will change your mind about fruitcakes. The molasses ginger spice cake mix is tasty. Then add in a tempting mix of fruit. The ingredients are all ones which I like — even the dates and raisins!

These fruitcakes make great holiday gifts. Surprise making this cake for family and friends. Suprise yourself. We’ve done it, we have a fruitcake.

Enjoy this recipe!