Fruitcake Recipe For Your Christmas Holidays
Fruitcake also known as fruit cake or fruit bread, is a cake made with candied or dried fruit, spices, nuts, and optionally soaked in spirits. There’s an iced and decorated version that is very popular in the United Kingdom.
Fruitcakes are typically served in Christmas and wedding celebrations.
Different fruitcake recipes can be found around the world, in countries such as Australia, Bahamas, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, New Zeland, Philippines , Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, Anglophone Caribbean, United Kingdom, and United States.
Wrapping the fruitcake in alcohol-soaked linen before storing it is a method used for lengthening its shelf life. So, when a fruitcake contains alcohol in abundance, it can remain edible for many years. An example is a fruitcake that was baked in 1878 and kept as a ‘family treasure’ by Morgan L. Ford in Tecumseh, Michigan. Then in 2003, Jay Leno sampled it on his The Tonight Show!
Now let’s go to the recipe and it’s instructions so you may bake your own delicious fruitcake for Christmas!
SERVES/YIELD: 22
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of mixed diced glacéed fruits
- 1 cup of dark raisins
- 2 cups of golden raisins
- 1 1/2 cups of dried currants
- 1/2 cup of halved glacéed red cherries plus additional for garnish
- Glacéed red cherries
- 1/2 cup of chopped glacéed angelica (found at specialty foods shops) plus some more for garnish
- Glacéed angelica
- 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon of dark rum
- 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon of double-acting baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 2 sticks (1 cup) of unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup of firmly packed brown sugar
- 5 large eggs
- 1/2 cup of apricot jam
- 1 cup of blanched almonds, toasted lightly, cooled, and ground fine in an electric spiced grinder
- 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts or pecans
Instructions:
1 – Use a large bowl to combine well the glacéed fruits, the currants, the raisins, 1/2 cup of the angelica, 1/2 cup of the cherries, and 3/4 cup of the rum. Now let the fruits macerate, covered overnight.
2 – Well-butter a 9 1/2-inch springform pan and line the bottom with a round of wax paper and butter the paper. Use a small bowl to sift together the flour, the baking powder, the nutmeg, the salt, and the ginger. Cream together the butter and the brown sugar in the bowl of an eletric mixer until the mixture is light and fluffy. Then beat in 4 of the eggs but 1 at a time, beating well after each one you add. Now drain the fruit mixture in a sieve set over the batter, and beat the juices into the batter. Using several thicknesses of paper towels pat the fruits dry and toss them in a bowl with 1/3 cup of the flour mixture. Stir in the remaining flour mixture into the batter, one fourth at a time, stir in the fruit mixture, the walnuts, and the ground almonds, and keep stirring until the mixture is just combined, then turn the batter out into the prepared pan.
3 – Place 2 loaf pans in a preheated oven at 300°F (150°C), both filled with hot water, and put the springform pan between them. Bake the cake for 1 hour, then lightly beat the remaining egg and brush the top of the cake with it, and bake it for another 1 hour.
4 – While you are waiting the cake to bake, in a saucepan melt the apricot jam with the remaining 1 tablespoon of rum over moderate heat. Bring the mixture to a boil, and strain it through a fine sieve into a bowl. While straining the mixture press hard on the solid parts so the juicy flavour is released.
5 – When the cake has finished cooking, let it cool in the pan on a rack for approximately 30 minutes, then remove the side of the pan and invert the cake onto the rack. Very carefully remove the pan bottom and the wax paper, and invert the cake onto another rack and let it cool down completely.
6 – Lay out the additional cherries and angelica decoratively on the cake. Brush the top of the cake with some of the apricot glaze, and if you have some glaze left just reserve it for another use. Now wrap the the cake in plastic wrap and foil, and store it.
Note that your covered cake can be kept for almost 6 months.
ENJOY! and MERRY CHRISTMAS!
