— by Margie Doyle–
Reprinted upon request
Fruitcakes — everybody has an opinion about them. I remember the horrible dark concoctions, mis-named “cake” that arrived on Christmases past. Morbidly dense and heavy, they were nibbled at by adults; I suspect it was for the hint of liquor in them. Children disdained them for the tangier tastes of powdered sugar and gingersnaps.
My dad’s “specialty” was roasted almonds and we kids helped by soaking the almonds and then slipping their “jackets” off them in the muddy, skin-soaked water. We woke up every Christmas morning to the savory smell of sauteed onions and celery for the turkey dressing.
Then I grew up and Christmastime was a domestic festival — knit and sew, decorate, bake and make gifts — candles, aprons, ornaments and hanging planters (remember macrame?) I loved being in the kitchen with the happy smells of cinnamon, walnuts, and peppermint — and brandy and rum! My sister became the Plum Pudding Maker and I inherited the legacy of the fruitcake.
In my first year as Fruit Cake Baker, I had the easy good fortune of stumbling upon the best fruitcake recipe in the world, the Golden Fruitcake; the Holy Grail of fruitcakes and I will share it with you. But first a warning: this fruitcake may never make it out of your kitchen, for in the cold, windy, troubling days that often precede Christmas, it is a comforter summa laude. You will return over and over to take “one more little slice” of it unless you possess total self-discipline. (I’ve made five this week and eaten three).
One year, I was in Alaska and sent the cakes to my sister in Seattle to distribute among relatives — she ate all of them; and chastised me for entrusting such a mission to her! Such is the seduction of the Golden Fruitcake.
Those who engage in the near-universal put-downs of fruitcakes offend my tender sensibilities as prejudiced, shallow-thinkers: not all fruitcakes are created equal. This one boasts only a scant amount of candied fruit — pretty red cherries — but lots and lots of butter and eggs.
I make a mean gravy and set a beautiful table. But my Golden Fruitcakes are the pride and joy of my domestic holiday preparations.
Here’s the recipe:
Golden Fruit Cake
- 8 oz. candied cherries, halved
- 15 oz. golden raisins
- sliced almonds
- 1/2 cup light fum
- 2 cups flour
- 2 tsp salt (kind of a lot, especially if butter is salted)
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter (softened, not melted)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 5 eggs
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1/2 cup apricot preserves
- 2 Tblsp. orange juice or rum
Combine fruits, nuts and rum in bowl and sprinkle with 1/4 cup flour
Beat butter, sugar and eggs on high until fluffy (approx. 3 minutes)
Bake in small loaf pans or 3 regular size loaf pans and bake until golden in 300-degree oven. (The recipe says 1-2 hours but I find it varies wildly with different ovens — as soon as I smell it, I check it).
Margie: This has all ingredients I like…cherries, rum by gum, golden raisins…
No mention of any sugars…so I assume that the jam and juice at the end, plus fruits at beginning, is it???
Thanks for sharing…..Jacqui
In defense of the “dark concoctions,” MY mother made wonderful dark fruitcake(s) with very little flour, selected dried fruit that included a bit of citron, lemon peel, dried apricots, dried apple and dark raisins, as well as light, plus select candied cherries, the best, not the cheap kind included in the ready mix dried fruit. We picked out pecan meat endlessly from small pecans cracked in the pecan cracker in our neighbor’s garage. Mother saved coffee cans with paper labels removed and other cans for small loaves plus a couple of larger loaves. The containers were lined with paper. Every relative who received a loaf was extremely pleased and grateful EVERY year. We stored OUR portions of the “dark concoction” in a large pressure cooker kettle on racks with apple slices replaced frequently to add moisture. We were served small slices accompanied by “hard sauce” which is mainly powdered sugar mixed with something that I don’t remember. My mother disdained any of the lighter fruitcake presentations.
I think I would like Margie’s mother’s version, too!
Mary Anne
Can’t fool me. I know that there was only one fruit cake ever made, hundred’s of years ago. It never spoils because it is so soaked in rum ad brandy, and just gets passed around the world.
Happy holidays to all.
Real fruitcake, the type made from scratch using good ingredients is truly a wonderful treat. I think where the fruitcake got its bad reputation is from the bricks of gooey sugary bluck filled with pasty textured chunks of who knows what that get sold every year by the millions. These nightmares have a label of “fruitcake” placed upon them, but in truth they bear as much resemblance to proper fruitcake as do the screechings of a tom cat when compared to Pavarotti. To the haters of fruitcakes everywhere, I implore you to try a proper fruitcake before condemning it. Sure, you still may not like it, after all, we don’t all like the same thing; but at least give it a fair shake.
@Mary Anne – Hard Sauce is a mixture of roughly 3 parts confectioner sugar mixed with 1 part softened butter. Frequently a dollop of alcohol is added, usually rum, brandy, cognac, or whatever moves your tastebuds. It’s a fine addition to fruitcake, and even better on mincemeat pie. Which reminds me, I forgot to get the ingredients for the mincemeat pie for Christmas dinner. Sadly it won’t be a proper one as I should have started it days ago. Life seems so busy that one forgets to adequately plan ahead. Maybe that’s why most people have only had the horrid creations posing as fruitcake sold in grocery stores everywhere.
My great aunt made the most wonderful fruitcakes — dark and light varieties, with one soaked in brandy. Thanks for stoking those lovely memories, Margie.
I made fruitcake one January. Might have been a recipe from Joy of Cooking. Candied my own fruit. Wrapped the cake in cheesecloth, packed it into a tin filled with powdered sugar and “watered” it periodically over the next twelve months with rum and brandy. I remember the sugar turned a dark brown. Come Christmas I made hard sauce with the booze soaked sugar. No one, as I recall, complained about that fruitcake.
Ah yes, the traditional fruit cake. My first memory of the fruit cake was at Grandmother’s house in the midst of the “great depression” and almost exactly in the middle of the dust bowl of Kansas & Oklahoma in the famous “thirties”. The cakes were passed around with a straight face and holiday greetings. I remember one that arrived Christmas morning and after breaking our knife trying to cut it open, my brother and I used it as a football for the rest of our visit and I am almost positive that when we came back for our traditional 4th of July gathering – my mother’s birthday – it was the same one being used as a door stop. My famous red haired aunt used to send them to people she didn’t like but had to stop after only a few years because the list got too long. Old Uncle John used one as a stopper for the “medicinal” elicser that come in a mason jar from a friend just down the road. It was said that when the liquid was gone he ate the cake finally soaked enough to make cutting possible. Now, in the beginning of the 21st century, is it possible that technology has caught up and people really do eat holiday fruit cakes? Talk about your major social advancements. Is it another victory for social media? Wow! Fruit Cake recipes on your cell phone.