candied fruits, nuts, spices and molasses
makes this cake my favourite fruitcake.
Fruitcake has been a tradition
in my family for many yrs.
After we left home,
If we couldn't get home for Christmas,
my Mom would mail us a homemade fruitcake
My Mom is no longer with us
so I decided to make it this year.
my Mom would mail us a homemade fruitcake
My Mom is no longer with us
so I decided to make it this year.
Unfortunately, I don't have my Mom's recipe.
I adapted this recipes from a
Newfoundland blog, rockrecipes.com
I altered the fruit to my likes.
This is a large recipe and I prepare all
the ingredients beforehand.
Ingredients:
1 cup chopped dates
1 cups chopped dried prunes
1 1/2 cups dark raisins.
1 1/4 golden raisins.
1 1/4 cup currants
1/2 cup chopped apricots.
3/4 cup butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 cup molasses
1/2 cup coffee liqueur or...
1/2 cup strong black coffee.
Zest and juice of 2 oranges.
1 cup chopped green and
red glaced cherries - 1/2 cup of each.
1/2 cup candied citrus peel
1/2 mixed fruit
1 cup toasted pecans chopped
1 cup chopped walnuts.
2 tsp allspice
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp powdered ginger
(I leave ginger out because of allergies)
1 tsp cloves
2 tsp nutmeg
3 eggs
1 1/3 cups flour
1/2 cup ground almonds
3 tbsp. cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda.
I prepare and assemble my ingredients together.
 |
| The dates, prunes, raisins, currents, and apricots, |
 |
| Butter, molasses and brown sugar |
 |
| Red and green cherries, citrus peel, and the mixed fruit, |
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| The flour, the ground almond, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda also the nuts all in the same bowl. |
Instructions
Preheat oven to 300 deg.F
Prepare your pans.
I used two 9x5 loaf pans and 1 small pan
I greased them and lined with
waxed paper (or parchment paper)
In a large saucepan melt the butter over medium heat
and add the raisins, dates, prunes,
currants, apricots, brown sugar, molasses,
spices, coffee liqueur (or coffee) and
the orange zest and juice.
Bring to a gentle boil and
simmer for 10 minutes.
Remove from heat and allow to
cool for 30-45 minutes.
When cooled, stir in the beaten eggs.
Add in the flour, ground almonds,
cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, chopped pecan
and walnuts, and add all
to the cooled mixture above.
Add the cherries, citrus peel, and the mixed fruit
Pour in the pans and decorate the top with
pecan halves, (or sliced almonds) and cherries.
Bake 300 degF. for 1 1/2 to 2 hrs.
depending on the size of your pan.
Do the toothpick test. Insert a toothpick in
the middle of the cake and if it
comes out clean, your cake is done.
Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack before removing.
Add booze, helps preserve the cake.
Poke small holes with a toothpick
into the cooled cake, and pour 2 - 3 tbsps of brandy,
dark rum or whiskey in the holes.
Wrap in cheesecloth and foil.
This will preserve the cake for several months.
 |
| Apricot Brandy |
 |
glaze of equal parts of water and
sugar boiled together for approx. 10-15 minutes.
Enjoy!
My light fruitcake contains only fruit and no spices.
Light, moist and packed with fruit.
To view, click here.
It was a rewarding experience
making these fruitcakes for the first time.
I understand my Mom's "labour of love"
and I'm grateful that she made this a family tradition.
Many thanks to the
Sherbrooke Record Newspaper.
for featuring this post.
Thanks for your visit xo
10 comments:
Happy New Year, Thelma! Your fruit cake looks wonderful! Lots of lovely fruit in it! I make two every year; a sultana and a dark. Both are my grandmothers' recipes and I have been making them since my children were small. Mine do not have nuts in them. The thing I love about the dark is that I can warm some of it up and use it for pudding with a sauce. Both cakes will keep for a very long time which is nice. So many do not like fruit cake but I think they just didn't have a good one. Would you agree? Have a lovely day!
Wow! That looks exactly like the fruitcake that my mother used to make and that I miss so much, because I can no long eat it due to dietary issues. But, oh, it was good.
Looks delicious, thanks for sharing.
That looks good because it is so moist. Many fruit cakes turn out too dry. - Margy
I have never heard of chocolate fruitcake but it looks yummy! Pinned!
I just popped them in the oven with a few changes. I detest candied fruit and citrus peel and always asked my Mom if she could make it without and she would jokingly reply “there wouldn’t be anything to hold the cake together”. So I use dates, raisins, craisins, dried apricots and some maraschino cherries totalling the same fruit quantity of your recipe. My batter was dark brown, not light like your picture but that’s the way I like it. I put nuts in just half the batter as my husband doesn’t like nuts in baking! I think HE’S nuts! I also added about 1/4 cup of Cuban dark rum. BTW, apricot brandy is great to drizzle on but be careful as it can make the cake quite sickly sweet over time. I plan to make a rum syrup for the first “soak”. Can’t wait to dig in. Happy Holidays from Calgary, Alberta, Canada!
Will definitely try this.....my alltime favourite cake.
I made this and it tastes and looks wonderful … it is moist .. but when I slice it, it falls apart. What did I do wrong?
I make a very similar fruitcake, adding candied / dried pineapple, and use a turkey injector to put 2-3 Tbsp of dark rum into each cake, wrapping it in plastic wrap, then foil, and storing it cool for 3-4 weeks to ripen. Slice it refrigerated, with a thin, sharp, wet knife for best results, as it can be sticky.
John in Indy
Yes. You need to let it “age” for a while before you can cut it! I take similar steps with my fruit cakes. I wrap the cake in cheesecloth and spoon the preferred alcohol (rum, whisky, bourbon or other preferred booze) about 1/4 cup, teaspoon at a time over the top of it and cover the entire top of the cake with apple slices cut crossways under the cheesecloth. This keeps it from drying out during the aging process. Then cover first with plastic wrap and lastly, in aluminum foil. I’m fortunate enough to have a large vintage cake tin which is airtight where I store it between this process . I repeat this process monthly for a total of 9 months. I then stop letting it age three more months and serve it during the New Year Holiday of the following year.
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