Fruit Cake

As fruit cake mellows with age, it should be made a few weeks before the Christmas holidays. This mellowing process for stollen, plum puddings, and fruit cake serves the home baker well, too, for not only is it a very satisfying feeling to store these treats away a week or so before Thanksgiving but it seems always to re-spark the spirit of Christmas and the pleasure of Christmas giving.

Be certain to use only newly purchased fruits and spices. It takes time to make fruit cake, and you’ll want your efforts to be rewarded. Dried fruits or spices left from a previous season will have lost most of their flavor.

As with stollen, I prefer to bake one large fruit cake, rather than a number of smaller-sized ones, which tend to dry out more. Use either a 10” tube pan or two 9” x 5” x 3” loaf pans. You will also need some brown paper (grocery bags are fine) with which to line them.

• 1 cup glazed orange peel, cut in ¼” dice

• 1 cup glazed lemon peel, cut in ½” dice

• 2 cups citron, sliced thin and cut in ½” strips

• 1 cup currants

• 1 box seedless raisins (15 ounces), chopped

• ½ cup dry red wine

• ½ cup brandy

• 3½ cups unbleached flour

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• ½ teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg

• ½ teaspoon ground cloves

• 1 teaspoon ground allspice

• ½ teaspoon ground mace

• 5 medium eggs

• 2⅔ sticks butter

• 2 cups brown sugar, packed

• ½ cup sorghum molasses

1. Prepare the fruits and mix them together in a large bowl. Pour in the wine and brandy, and set aside.

2. Grease the tube pan or the two loaf pans with sweet butter, then line them with brown paper and grease the paper.

3. Measure the spices, then sift them twice with flour, baking powder, and salt.

4. Separate the eggs.

5. Place the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and cream them together until light and fluffy. Beat the egg yolks slightly before adding them to the creamed butter and sugar. Mix them in well.

6. Stir in the sifted flour mixture and continue stirring until thoroughly blended in. Add the molasses.

7. Mix in the cut fruit.

8. Beat the egg whites until they stand in stiff peaks, then thoroughly fold them into the batter.

9. Spoon into the cake pans, cover tightly, and let set overnight in a cool place.

10. On the following day, preheat the oven to 250°F. Place the fruit cake in the middle rack and bake for 3½ to 4 hours.

11. After 1½ hours, cover the cake with a piece of brown paper (do not use foil), or set the pan into a brown paper bag.

12. After 3½ hours remove the cake and listen closely for any quiet, bubbling noises, which are an indication that the batter is still moist and needs more baking. You can also test with a cake tester or a flat toothpick; if they come out clean when withdrawn from the center of the cake, the cake is done. If so remove the cake from the oven and place it on a cake rack to cool.

13. When the cake is cold, remove it from the cake pan, but do not remove the brown paper. Wrap loosely in aluminum foil and store in a tin. Homemade fruit cake needs air, so place the cover on loosely or punch a few holes in the lid with an ice pick.

NOTE: Once or twice before Christmas, open the tin and sprinkle a liqueur glass of brandy, wine, or whiskey over the cake to keep it moist and flavorful.