With the new year comes new beginnings, and I will make more of an effort to be consistent with my blog. I have made so many new things that includes crafts as well as food but I have done a poor job documenting what I do, therefore I don’t have new material! I get in that bad habit while I’m cooking mostly, I just don’t have time to follow a new recipe and remember to grab the camera all the time. But now I’ve got several recipes to share with you and I’m excited! The first one for 2013 will be fruitcake!
Top to bottom: Craisins, pineapple, apricots, raisins
I knew that I wanted to double the recipe because I intended to hand a few loafs out to friends and family. My calculations included about 8 cups of fruit and my reasoning was if I had equal parts fruit to batter then I could probably use any kind of fruit I wanted. I substituted some fruit from the recipe based on what the store had. Don’t forget to double the rest of the ingredients!
Cooking the fruit with all the liquid, the smells were amazing!
I also didn’t grind my own spices, someday I would like to get to that point. So many of my spices already go bad on the shelf and I’ve heard that if you get spices whole then they last longer. You can also grind as much as you need rather than having a big huge bottle of pre-ground spices that have sat on a shelf for who knows how long!
2 loaves and a cake of fruicake! Perfect!
I don’t know if it was just me but I tried using those disposable aluminum loaf pans and my first batch stuck to them. Next batch I used nice, sturdy aluminum pans and they came out perfectly! I highly recommend them, and they’re so cheap and store easily. Then just wrap in just plastic wrap, then some colored cellophane and ribbon, and BAM! A lovely present. The last pan is a cheesecake pan, which worked perfectly because I could just unsnap the outer piece.
I think this is enough to convert a non-fruitcake lover!
If you intend to leave these wrapped for a little bit before slicing into them (which I highly recommend) then just keep in “an airtight container” which is what it says in the recipe. Well I don’t have an airtight container big enough for any of these, so I wrapped really well in plastic wrap then again in tin foil.
I highly highly recommend this recipe as opposed to the one I posted last year. It was moist, delicious, nice fruit to batter ratio, and tastes great warm or room temperature! I did buy those fake cherries for my mom and placed them on top which added some beautiful color. You could also eat this cake warm with some mascarpone cheese. This cake would beat any other fruitcake recipe, I guarantee it!
Thanks for posting this. I saw this recipe and plan to try it in the next few months. I tried a popular natural food store’s fruitcake over Christmas and it didn’t really work for me. It was topped off with a ton of too tart cranberries and did not hold together well nor did it have the soaked and aged flavor that makes me love fruitcake.
I’m so glad you saw this recipe then! Alton Brown also has an episode on Fruitcake, he talks about proper flavor development before, during, and after baking. http://www.foodnetwork.com/altons-fruitcake/video/index.html
As you can see this recipe held together quite nicely, even after being “manhandled” every few days to open the plastic wrap to allow basting. I was so impressed with the flavors, though I may tweek what fruit I put into it next year. Do let me know how it turns out for you!
Great post! Thanks for sharing this delicious bake! =)