16 oz Citron, candied 3 C Flour (white)
-(or candied fruit 2 t Baking powder
-and peels) 2 t Salt
8 oz Cherries, candied 1 T Cinnamon, ground
1 C Raisins, dark 1 t Nutmeg, ground
1 C Raisins, golden 1 t Allspice, ground
1 1/3 C Calmyra figs, cut 1 t Cloves, ground
-into pieces 4 Eggs
1 1/3 C Dates (pitted), cut 1 3/4 C Brown sugar, packed
-into small slices 1 C Orange juice
1 1/2 C Pecan halves 3/4 C Butter, melted
-(or walnut halves -(cooled)
-if necessary) 1/4 C Molasses, light
1/2 C Brandy -(treacle)
Mix fruits together in a bowl. Pour brandy over fruits. Turn fruit
mixture over every 20 minutes. Soaking time is a matter of taste, but two
hours is typical. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Prepare tube pan: grease
sides and bottom. Line bottom and sides with greased brown paper.
In a very large bowl, mix flour, spices, baking powder and salt. Stir
until spices are evenly blended throughout.
In a third bowl beat eggs until fluffy. Add brown sugar, orange juice,
molasses and butter. Mix, making sure that all the sugar dissolves.
Pour off any liquid from fruit mixture and add the fruit and the nuts to
the dry ingredients. Mix until all fruit pieces are coated. Then pour in
the liquids and mix gently until you have an evenly-mixed batter.
Pour batter into pan and bake at 300 degrees F. for 1 hour. Cover pan with
foil and bake for 1 hour more or until toothpick inserted in center comes
out clean. Cool for 30 minutes before removing from pan. Peel off paper
very carefully.
Put cake in cake tin lined with foil. For the next 3 to 4 weeks, sprinkle
a little brandy over cake twice a week. Keep cake covered and store the tin
in the refrigerator. If you prefer to omit the brandy, cover top of cake
with very thin slices of apple instead.
NOTES:
* An extravagant, traditional fruitcake — This is about as rich a
fruitcake as you could possibly want to make. It started life as a Better
Homes and Gardens recipe, but has been changed beyond all recognition.
Yield: a 7 lb cake.
* This makes a HUGE cake. If your tube pan isn’t at least 10 X 4 inches,
there is a fair chance that it will run over; in that case, use several
loaf pans instead (fill loaf pans about half-way). A pan with a
removable center will make extracting the cake much easier.
* Except for mixing the liquids, an electric beater is useless for this
recipe.
* In the USA, candied fruits typically come in packages of the indicated
sizes. If you have to measure by volume, use 2 1/2 cups of candied citron
and 1 1/3 cups of the candied cherries. I prefer citron instead of the
mixture because there’s no bitterness from the rinds, although the cake
isn’t so colorful. Calmyra figs are the light-colored figs most commonly
seen in North America.
: Difficulty: moderate.
: Time: 2 hours preparation (including soaking the fruit), 2 hours baking,
several weeks mellowing.
: Precision: Measure batter ingredients carefully. Fruit and nut
quantities are somewhat flexible.
: Charles Wingate
: University of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, Maryland,
USA
: seismo!mimsy!mangoe or mangoe@mimsy.umd.edu
:
Yields
1 cake