FRUITCAKE
Created | Updated Oct 21, 2003
FRUITCAKE
A cake made with fruit traditionally soaked for weeks in rum or brandy, not the pop culture word used to refer to someone with questionable sanity.
THE HISTORY OF FRUITCAKE
FRUITCAKE IN MODERN CULTURE
<this is the part where I talk about christmas tradition and wedding cakes>
THE GOOD WITH THE BAD
It’s true. Not everyone likes fruitcake. People are known to either love fruitcake, or hate it, not unlike Marmite A184097 in this regard.
The mostlikely reason for disliking fruitcake is bad fruitcake related expierences as a child. One researcher writes,
'my Grandma feels that fruitcake is a traditional gift to give at Christmas time, so she use to give some of that store bought stuff to all the family. My Mum is very, hmm, how do I put it, ‘frugal’. So this is how it goes. Grandma (who doesn’t like eating fruit cake) gives Mum fruitcake at Christmas. Mum puts fruitcake in bottom of huge freezer, and the following Christmas, gets it out and gives it to Grandma. This being Christmas #2 in the cycle, Grandma gives us a 2nd fruitcake. This goes on for some 10 years or so, until hungry little me goes hunting for something sweet, and finding the cake at the bottom of the freezer I proceed to unwrap it with the intention of eating it. Until…. I look at the label. It’s from a store that closed out around Christmas #2. Grandma had been doing the same thing that Mum had, and in effect we had been exchanging the same 2 fruitcakes back and forth for about 10 years. Hmmm. Don’t you just love family?'
Another reasearcher loves fruitcake so much, it is impossible for the cake to survive in the house long enough to mature,
'I made a rich fruit cake yesterday… You're supposed to let those things mature for at least a week but I've already eaten close to a quarter of it. I guess I'll have to make another one tomorrow so that it'll have matured for a couple of days - I should have this one finished by Sunday.'
RECIPES FOR FABULOUS FRUITCAKE
A recipe? Certainly
8oz plain flour
1 level tsp baking powder
1/2 level tsp salt
6oz soft brown sugar
5oz softened butter or pastry fat
3 eggs
2 tblsp milk (1 tblsp of treacle can be used instead)
7oz currants
7oz raisins
7oz sultanas
3oz glace cherries
Grease an 8" round cake tin & line it with greaseproof paper, parchment, or waxed paper. Sift the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar into a bowl, add the butter/fat, milk, & unbeaten eggs, and stir until smooth and creamy. Stir in the mixed fruit and turn the mixture in the lined tin. Bake in the centre of slow oven (300ºF, gas mk 2) for 3 hours. If the top starts to burn turn down the heat a little and cover the cake with a circle of aluminium foil. The cake is ready when a knife or skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool on a ire rack then wrap the cake in foil for a week to mature... if you can
Paul's fruitcake.
Dry ingredients. Mix together in a mixing bowl:
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 cups flour
1/2 cup ground nuts (any kind you like)
2 tsps. baking powder
1/3 cup chopped dates
3/4 cup raisins
1 tsp. lemon rind, grated
1/4 tsp. each: cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg
1/3 cup milk powder.
Wet ingredients. Mix together in a different mixing bowl:
1 and 1/4 cups apple juice
1 egg
1/3 cup water or milk.
1/2 cup candied fruits. (don’t forget this or you will end up with a ‘fine cake’, not a ‘fruitcake’)
Combine the contents of the two bowls.
Mix thoroughly.
Pour into greased baking pan
Put in oven (important step )
Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about an hour.
If the liquid ingredients are not enough to make
a good batter, feel free to add more liquid.
This recipe has never let me down.
Feel free to vary it.
ADDITIONAL FRUITCAKE RELATED FACTS
'rich fruit cakes will keep a *long* time, especially the ones with booze in. I got a birthday cake when I was 8 (no booze in that one ), and a year later we found some of it at the back of the pantry. It was still perfectly edible since my mum had wrapped it up tightly '
A cake made with fruit traditionally soaked for weeks in rum or brandy, not the pop culture word used to refer to someone with questionable sanity.
THE HISTORY OF FRUITCAKE
FRUITCAKE IN MODERN CULTURE
<this is the part where I talk about christmas tradition and wedding cakes>
THE GOOD WITH THE BAD
It’s true. Not everyone likes fruitcake. People are known to either love fruitcake, or hate it, not unlike Marmite A184097 in this regard.
The mostlikely reason for disliking fruitcake is bad fruitcake related expierences as a child. One researcher writes,
'my Grandma feels that fruitcake is a traditional gift to give at Christmas time, so she use to give some of that store bought stuff to all the family. My Mum is very, hmm, how do I put it, ‘frugal’. So this is how it goes. Grandma (who doesn’t like eating fruit cake) gives Mum fruitcake at Christmas. Mum puts fruitcake in bottom of huge freezer, and the following Christmas, gets it out and gives it to Grandma. This being Christmas #2 in the cycle, Grandma gives us a 2nd fruitcake. This goes on for some 10 years or so, until hungry little me goes hunting for something sweet, and finding the cake at the bottom of the freezer I proceed to unwrap it with the intention of eating it. Until…. I look at the label. It’s from a store that closed out around Christmas #2. Grandma had been doing the same thing that Mum had, and in effect we had been exchanging the same 2 fruitcakes back and forth for about 10 years. Hmmm. Don’t you just love family?'
Another reasearcher loves fruitcake so much, it is impossible for the cake to survive in the house long enough to mature,
'I made a rich fruit cake yesterday… You're supposed to let those things mature for at least a week but I've already eaten close to a quarter of it. I guess I'll have to make another one tomorrow so that it'll have matured for a couple of days - I should have this one finished by Sunday.'
RECIPES FOR FABULOUS FRUITCAKE
A recipe? Certainly
8oz plain flour
1 level tsp baking powder
1/2 level tsp salt
6oz soft brown sugar
5oz softened butter or pastry fat
3 eggs
2 tblsp milk (1 tblsp of treacle can be used instead)
7oz currants
7oz raisins
7oz sultanas
3oz glace cherries
Grease an 8" round cake tin & line it with greaseproof paper, parchment, or waxed paper. Sift the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar into a bowl, add the butter/fat, milk, & unbeaten eggs, and stir until smooth and creamy. Stir in the mixed fruit and turn the mixture in the lined tin. Bake in the centre of slow oven (300ºF, gas mk 2) for 3 hours. If the top starts to burn turn down the heat a little and cover the cake with a circle of aluminium foil. The cake is ready when a knife or skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool on a ire rack then wrap the cake in foil for a week to mature... if you can
Paul's fruitcake.
Dry ingredients. Mix together in a mixing bowl:
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 cups flour
1/2 cup ground nuts (any kind you like)
2 tsps. baking powder
1/3 cup chopped dates
3/4 cup raisins
1 tsp. lemon rind, grated
1/4 tsp. each: cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg
1/3 cup milk powder.
Wet ingredients. Mix together in a different mixing bowl:
1 and 1/4 cups apple juice
1 egg
1/3 cup water or milk.
1/2 cup candied fruits. (don’t forget this or you will end up with a ‘fine cake’, not a ‘fruitcake’)
Combine the contents of the two bowls.
Mix thoroughly.
Pour into greased baking pan
Put in oven (important step )
Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about an hour.
If the liquid ingredients are not enough to make
a good batter, feel free to add more liquid.
This recipe has never let me down.
Feel free to vary it.
ADDITIONAL FRUITCAKE RELATED FACTS
'rich fruit cakes will keep a *long* time, especially the ones with booze in. I got a birthday cake when I was 8 (no booze in that one ), and a year later we found some of it at the back of the pantry. It was still perfectly edible since my mum had wrapped it up tightly '
