Fruitcake

Submitted by CCLady

"Every year, my friends offer to buy the ingredients if I'll make these. I use the mini-pans, and usually have to make at least two batches."

 

• Ready In: 2hrs 45mins
• Ingredients: 16
• Yields: 8 mini cakes

ingredients

• 2 cups butter
• 8 eggs
• 5 cups flour
• 1⁄2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1⁄2 teaspoon mace
• 1⁄2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 1⁄2 lbs light raisins
• 4 lbs mixed candied fruit (cherries, pineapple, etc)
• 4 cups pecans
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1⁄2 cup honey
• 1⁄2 cup brandy, plus extra for basting

directions

1. Combine fruit, raisins and pecans in a bowl.
2. Stir in 1 cup flour.
3. Cream butter, sugar, spices and eggs until light.
4. Combine remaining flour, salt and baking powder.
5. Combine honey, vanilla, almond extract and brandy; blend well.
6. Alternately add flour mixture and honey mixture to the butter mixture, beating well after each addition.
7. Stir in fruit-nut mixture.
8. Spoon into pans-batter should be too stiff to pour.
9. Bake at 250º for two hours, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
10. While still hot, spoon 2 tablespoons of brandy over each cake.
11. When cool, cover with foil; let stand in cool place for at least two weeks; every 3 days pour one tablespoon brandy over each.

Reviews

[Soldier Girl]

My mother, who has a life-long hated of fruitcake, begs me to make this for her. I use chopped crystallized ginger in with the mixed fruit, replacing usually about a quarter of the fruit. I add significantly more spices, including cloves and allspice. Rather than honey, I use molasses. As you can imagine from my substitutions, this is almost a gingerbread- fruit cake hybrid… delicious.

 

[NorthwestGal]

Definitely a 5-star fruitcake. I made 2 adjustments though. I added only half of the mix fruit and half of the pecans (the 4 lbs and 4 cups respectively just seemed too much, so I reduced both by half). Even so, I ended up with quite a large bundt and had more batter, so I made a smaller 5x8 loaf. We sampled the smaller loaf immediately, and it was fabulous (I'm saving the bundt to "feed" additional brandy until Christmas). I really like my standard fruitcake recipe, but I think this one is much better, and I will make this every Christmas from now on. Thank you for sharing your recipe, CCLady.