Christmas Fruitcake...

Fruitcake at Christmas time is an old holiday tradition. It's one of those foods that you either love or hate. Those who hate fruitcake can't imagine why anyone would want to eat it. Another holiday tradition is fruitcake jokes. Fruitcake bashers often refer to them as bricks or door stops.

But...People really do eat fruitcake! Some people ~ like me ~ REALLY love fruitcake. It's our passion and the highlight of the Christmas season.

While the practice of making cakes with dried fruits, honey and nuts may be traced back to ancient times, food historians generally agree that fruitcake ~ as we know it today ~ dates back to the Middle ages. Early versions of the rich fruit cake, such as Scottish Black Bun dating from the Middle Ages, were luxuries for special occasions. Fruitcakes have been used for celebrations ever since, in the early 18th century the bride cakes and plumb cakes, descended from these enriched bread recipes.

My love of fruitcake comes from my Scottish ancestors. For me, it's impossible to imagine a Christmas without fruitcake. Every year in late summer, my great- Aunt Lillian would make her Fruitcake using her great- grandmother's recipe, wrapped it in several layers of cheesecloth and safely stored them on the top shelf in the pantry -- beyond anyone’s reach. Weekly she would bring all of them down and pour a generous amount of her homemade peach brandy over them ~ letting it soak deeply into each cake.

Aunt Lillian loved her Christmas cakes; because they were fruit-filled, moist, and absolutely delicious. The first week of December, she would wrap them up and mail them out to all her relatives. It became a daily question when I got home from school, “Has the fruitcake arrived?”

So, throughout the holidays, whenever visitors came, they could never leave without first sampling a piece or two of Aunt Lillian’s fruitcake. Now you can use the same old-fashioned Christmas Fruitcake recipe to make your own delicious memories.


Dark Christmas Fruitcake

Ingredients:
4 cups raisins
1 cup candied cherries - halved
1 cup candied pineapple
1 cup diced candied mixed fruit
1 cup pecan halves
1 cup thinly sliced almonds
2 cups flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup brown sugar
6 eggs - separated
1 cup vegetable shortening
1½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ square unsweetened baking chocolate (melted)
¼ cup lemon juice
¼ cup orange juice

Preheat oven to 300 degree F.

Thoroughly grease a 4 x 10 -inch cake pan or 2 large loaf pans. Line the bottom and sides with aluminum foil. Lightly spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the fruit and nuts. Toss the mixture with 1 cup flour to coat. In a second bowl, sift the remaining flour with the baking soda and spices.

In a very large bowl, at medium speed, beat the shortening and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the melted chocolate & mix well. At low speed, alternately beat in the flour/spice mixture and the fruit juices.

In a separate bowl, with clean beaters, beat the egg whites until stiff. Fold the beaten egg whites into the batter. Add the fruit and nut mixture and stir in by hand until all the ingredients are well mixed. Turn the batter into the prepared pan (1 tube pan or 2 large loaf pans or 3 small loaf pans).

Bake in a preheated oven at 300 degree F – If using a tube cake pan for 2 hours and 20 minutes; or if you are using 2 large loaf pans for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Cool completely in the pan, on a wire rack. Remove the cooled cake from the pan and wrap it well in cheesecloth.

Make sure to make about two month before you plan to serve. That way, you can soak it in the brandy of your choice several times ~ allowing the brandy to penetrate through out the fruitcake.

Serves 12


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George’s notes:

• The Society for the Protection & Preservation of Fruitcake wants to defend this cake's reputation and make sure it's part of every Christmas season for generations of future fruit cake lovers.
• One of the classic phrases regarding the longevity of fruitcake was coined in 1983 by Russell Baker: "Fruitcake is forever."
• Another goes… "Thirty-four years ago, I inherited the family fruitcake. Fruitcake is the only food durable enough to become a family heirloom. It had been in my grandmother's possession since 1880, and she passed it to a niece in 1933."
• Here's a good one... "When my great- grandmother inherited it, it was already 86 years old, having been baked by her great-grandfather in 1794 as a Christmas gift for President George Washington. Washington, with his high-flown view of ethical standards for Government workers, sent it back with thanks, explaining that he thought it unseemly for Presidents to accept gifts weighing more than 80 pounds, even though they were only eight inches in diameter...There is no doubt...about the fruitcake's great age. Sawing into it six Christmas ago, I came across a fragment of a 1794 newspaper with an account of the lynching of a real-estate speculator in New York City."
• "Take the story of the travelling fruitcake, years on the road like the Flying Dutchman or the Man Without A Country. One family received it on some long ago Christmas from distant friends. On the following Christmas, they wrapped it in elaborate packaging and sent it back to the givers. On the next holiday, it returned. And so on and so on - the gift that keeps on giving." --- Let Them Eat Fruitcake, by Mary Lou Healy
• Just in case you were interested...The oldest fruitcake company in the United States is the Collin Street Bakery, Corsicana Texas [1896]