Who's making fruit cake this year? Your holiday treats?

I'm trying my hand at fruit cake this year. It'll be an old fashioned dark, dense cake English-style.

Anybody else doing it this year?

You are the devil. Fruitcakes should be illegal.

People make fruit cake? I thought it was just the couple of hundred loafs that continue to get passed around year after year.

azgreg said:

People make fruit cake? I thought it was just the couple of hundred loafs that continue to get passed around year after year.

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Yes. I have one of the originals, baked in 1547. The date is chiseled into the corner stone.

I might finally get off my duff and make some Christmas tamales. Costco had a nice steamer bowl for sale.

Tamales are not easy to do, I want to make some chicken mole' tacos, and roast some hatch chilies and make those, maybe some pumpkin tamales.

Bonus...I have several large banana plants growing in my yard, will use the leaf for wrapping instead of corn husks.

tosca1 said:

I'm trying my hand at fruit cake this year. It'll be an old fashioned dark, dense cake English-style.

Anybody else doing it this year?

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I've never had luck making fruit cake.

But I do make Key-lime, Mincemeat, Sweet Potato Pie. I spend a lot of time making breads - everything from braided ropes to sopapias. And then toffee in all flavors and fruit leather - all sorts of good junk

Aunt Spiker said:

I've never had luck making fruit cake.

But I do make Key-lime, Mincemeat, Sweet Potato Pie. I spend a lot of time making breads - everything from braided ropes to sopapias. And then toffee in all flavors and fruit leather - all sorts of good junk

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mmm.....I love Key Lime Pie. Sweet Potato Pie too now that you mention it.

Aunt Spiker said:

I've never had luck making fruit cake.

But I do make Key-lime, Mincemeat, Sweet Potato Pie. I spend a lot of time making breads - everything from braided ropes to sopapias. And then toffee in all flavors and fruit leather - all sorts of good junk

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I made one decades ago and it wasn't good.

Update on the fruitcake:

It was excellent. I got good feedbacks. I still found it a little too sweet - next time I'll rinse the candied cherries, and reduce the brown sugar. Needless to say, the recipe's for keeps. For a non-alcoholic fruitcake it was so nicely flavored, dark and quite moist. For anyone interested, here's the recipe I followed - except that I really loaded mine with more nuts and citrus mix. This recipe made two loaf pans.




Old English Dark Fruit Cake
Originally published on November 7, 2007.


6 oz dried prunes, chopped
6 oz dates, chopped
8 oz dark raisins
6 oz golden raisins
6 oz currents
¾ cup butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
¾ cup molasses
½ cup coffee liqueur (or ½ cup strong black coffee)
Zest and juice of 2 oranges
8 oz glace cherries
8 oz candied citrus peel
8 oz toasted pecans, roughly chopped
2 tsp allspice
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp powdered ginger
1 tsp cloves
2 tsp nutmeg
3 tbsp cocoa
3 eggs
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
½ cup ground hazelnuts or almonds
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda


Grease a 10 inch springform pan or 10 inch tube pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

In a large saucepan melt the butter over medium heat and add the raisins, dates, prunes, currents, brown sugar, molasses, spices, coffee liqueur (or coffee) and the orange zest and juice. Bring to a gentle boil and very slowly simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 30-45 minutes. When cool stir in the beaten eggs.

Sift together, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and ground nuts and fold through the boiled mixture. Fold in cherries, citrus peel and pecans. Pour into prepared baking pan. You can decorate the top with additional pecan halves, cherries etc., if you like.
Bake at 300 degrees F for 1 ½ to 2 hours depending upon the size of your pan. The cake should feel firm to the touch at the center and a wooden toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean. The cake should be cooled completely in the pan on a wire rack before removing.

At this point you can poke small holes in the top and bottom of the cake with a fork and pour on 4 ounces of dark rum or your favorite whiskey, half on the top, wait ten minutes, then flip it over and pour the remaining half on the bottom. Soak several layers of cheesecloth in additional rum if you like and wrap completely around the cake, then cover with several layers of plastic wrap and store in a COOL place. When serving, you can add a layer of marzipan or if you have decorated the top with fruit and nuts, brush with a simple glaze of equal parts water and sugar boiled together for about 10-15 minutes.

Fruit cake is the main diet of ISIS terrorists and that is the reason they are pissed off.