Old Fashioned Fruit Cake Recipes

FRUITCAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 225 degrees F (110 degrees C). Grease and flour a tube pan.
• In a large bowl, combine sugar, flour, soda, spices, eggs, lemon rind, vanilla, 1/2 cup brandy, fruit, nuts, and melted butter or margarine. Mix thoroughly. Pour into prepared pan.
• Bake for 1 hour, or until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
• Wrap cooled cake in foil. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons brandy over the cake everyday for 2 weeks.

DARK FRUITCAKE

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• Place candied fruit, ginger, raisins, currants, cherries, walnuts or lemon rind, orange marmalade, lemon juice, brandy or orange juice, and vanilla and almond extracts in a large bowl; toss well, cover and let stand overnight at room temperature.
• Grease, then line the bottom of a 10-inch tube pan with wax paper. Preheat oven to 250 F.
• Sift together twice the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, cloves, allspice, baking powder, and salt, and set aside.
• Cream butter until light, add sugar gradually, and continue creaming until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
• Add to dry ingredients, about 1 cup at a time, beating just to blend. (Note: Unless you have an extra-large mixing bowl, you will have to transfer batter to a large kettle at this point.) Mix in the fruit mixture.
• Spoon batter into the pan and, if you wish, decorate the top with halved candied cherries and walnuts. Place on center oven rack; half fill a roasting pan with water and place on the rack below. Bake uncovered, 4 1/4 hours until cake shrinks slightly from sides of the pan and a metal skewer inserted midway between the edge and the central tube comes out clean.
• Cool cake upright in pan on a wire rack for one hour. Carefully turn out, peel off the wax paper, turn right-side up and cool thoroughly.
• Wrap in brandy or rum soaked cheesecloth then in foil, and store in an airtight container about three weeks to ripen. If you wish to store it longer, sprinkle cheesecloth wrapping with 2 to 3 tablespoons brandy or rum at 3-week intervals.
• Enjoy. Recipe Source: by Jean Anderson, Elaine Hanna (Doubleday). Reprinted with permission.

WHITE FRUIT CAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 300°F and line loaf pans with parchment paper.
• Blend eggs, vanilla, sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl.
• Add salt, baking powder, and flour and mix.
• Mix in pineapple and juice, cherries, raisins, dried cherries, and pecans.
• Fill the tins with fruit cake batter and spread to even the surface.
• Bake at 300° for 1 1⁄2 hours. Start testing for doneness with 20 minutes left, to prevent over-cooking.

OLD-FASHIONED FRUITCAKE COOKIES

Steps:

• Combine chopped candied cherries, pineapple, raisins/dates, and pecans in a bowl. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup of the flour; mix well to coat. Set aside.
• Cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add egg, buttermilk, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Beat on medium speed until well combined, light, and creamy.
• By hand, stir in fruit mixture, remaining flour, baking soda, and salt.
• Drop approximately one tablespoon of dough 2 inches apart onto cookie sheets. Bake at 350℉ for 10-12 minutes until the edges and centers look cooked through.
• Cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes then remove to cooling racks to cool completely.
• For the candied cherries, you can use red, green, or a combination of 1/2 cup of each. We always use a combination of both colors.
• We do not recommend substituting fruit cake mix for the candied cherries and candied pineapple. Though it's already chopped (which is nice), fruit cake mix also contains lemon peel/citron, which is strong flavored and overpowering in these cookies.
• If you're like me and like to under-bake your cookies, note that these fruitcake cookies do not lend themselves well to under-baking. Fruitcake cookies get more moist as they sit, and will turn too gooey if under-baked.

OLD FASHIONED BOILED FRUIT CAKE - SUPER MOIST!!

Steps:

• Start by dicing the fruits. Place fruit, butter, sugar and water in a large saucepan. Bring to the boil over medium heat and then simmer for two minutes, stirring constantly.
• Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
• Meanwhile sieve the dry ingredients, lightly beat the eggs and prepare a 7 inch cake pan by lining the outside with aluminium foil and inside with a parchment paper ring. Set this aside.
• Once the boiled fruit mixture is cooled. add lightly whisked eggs, golden syrup, lemon and orange zest. Fold gently. Then add the sieved dry ingredients and mix to form a cake batter.
• Transfer it to the prepared pan and smoothen the top.
• In your preheated oven of 150°C, place an inverted cookie tray. Place the cake pan on top of this tray in the center of the oven. Bake for 65 to 80 mins or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. It took me 70 mins.
• Let it cool in the tin for 10 mins and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely
• Once cooled glaze with apricot glaze and sprinkle with nut and seed mixture or keep it plain.