We recently visited with my BFF Paulette and she served us this amazing store bought fruitcake. DH and I were hesitant, since I was afraid of weird and unusual glace fruits inside but bravely took a piece and found it irresistible and we kept noshing it like mice. I determined to make my own using dried fruit that I like and definitely liquor that I like. I’m not much of a rum fan so why use it in cake? I’m a scotch girl and decided to go with that and as for the dried fruit, no weird stuff, rather dried cherries, dried cranberries, some raisins and cut up dates as well. After all, if you want something to taste good, use ingredients you like, not scarily colored fake looking stuff.

In all honesty, fruitcake is more of an English goodie and not something I really had as a kid but since I hang around Paulette and Doug, I’m exposed to many English foods (like Coronation Chicken With Mango Chutney and other such delectable items). So I had no recipe to rely on and rolled up my sleeves and searched my cookbooks and the internet and didn’t really find what I wanted. I wanted a cake that supported all that fruit but not so much fruit that the cake sort of disappears if you get me. So I took a little from here, a little from there and went with my own ideas and people, this is so delicious that I suspect I will have to hide it or freeze it so I don’t eat the whole thing myself. As it happens, my mom taste tested this and to my pleased amazement (she doesn’t often nosh) kept asking for just one more piece of cake. ‘Nuff said.

I warn you that you may be shocked by the amount of dried fruit used but I actually cut down on the fruit that many recipes tout and it makes two 9 x 5 loaves so you get two cakes out of it (although Paulette told me traditionally it’s made in a round cake but I preferred loaves). Since I’m often impatient, I prepared it in such a way that you can make it all in one go, no need to soak the fruit overnight.

You start by soaking the dried fruit in the liquor of your choice, but you know me, first gather your ingredients. No pic of the Scotch but I used Auchentoshan, just sayin’. You can use the one of your choice or Rum (if you must) or brandy or Cointreau (orange liqueur) is nice too. If you don’t have or don’t want to use booze of any kind, apple cider or orange juice can be used but go for the booze, trust me!

And the cake mixture – the marg/butter isn’t in the pic, sorry.

So start by soaking the dried fruit after you pit and cut up the dates, just pour over the liquor of your choice.

Toss a bit, cover with plastic wrap and zap in microwave 3-4 minutes till hot. Let sit 45 minutes – 1 hour. While it sits, take your walnuts and toast them in the oven. This is simple as can be, preheat the oven to 350 F/180 C. Take a rimmed baking sheet and place the walnuts directly on it (no parchment paper necessary, they won’t stick). Toast them for 8-10 minutes till lightly toasted but make sure to keep an eye on them, they shouldn’t burn. Remove promptly and let cool on wire rack. Set aside. K. Now lower the temp of the oven to 300 F/150 C.

And now prepare the batter of the cake.

In a bowl, place the flour, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, salt and baking powder and grated orange peel and stir till combined.

In the mixer beat together the brown sugar and the butter/margarine.

It should look creamed together like so:

Scrape sides and bottom with spatula to make sure no bits remain uncreamed. Now add the eggs, one at a time, till each egg is incorporated into the batter.

When beaten smooth they should look like this:

Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and combine the syrup and orange juice and add 1/3 of that.

Alternate the flour mixture and the juice/syrup mixture till all finished and beat just till combined (overbeating toughens the cake), scraping down the sides and bottom to make sure it’s fully incorporated.

It’s fairly thick in consistency and that’s correct. Now we add the soaked dried fruits, including any liquid that accumulated on the bottom of the bowl.

At this point the cake, even unbaked is starting to make you salivate with its scent! Okay, mix in the fruit and the walnuts just till combined. The batter is lumpy with the fruits and nuts. All good.

Prepare two 9 x 5 loaf pans by lightly spraying with oil and on top of that (this is not a mistake, do this!) line them with parchment paper, cutting away some excess. Try to plaster the parchment against the sides, snipping the 4 corner so it folds into itself, like this:

Don’t skip this or the loaves will stick and what a shame after all this work!

Evenly divide the batter between the two pans, patting down so it sits properly into the pans. Btw, each loaf pan weighed about a kilo (yes, including the tin but still…) these are heavy cakes, serious stuff.

Pop the loaf pans into the oven (remember at 300 F/150 C, not higher or they will get too dark without the middle fully baking through) and bake for approximately 1 hour and forty minutes – 1 hour and 45 or till a wooden skewer comes out clean with a crumb or two clinging but not wet. Remove from oven, place on wire racks to cool in the pans and now take a pastry brush and drizzle the maple syrup evenly over the two cakes, brushing to cover the tops and let sit till they cool in the pans. Okay at this point, you are attempting not to actually drool in the pans but if you can hack it, don’t eat them yet (although DH and I only lasted 3 hours before nipping a bit, and then a bit more 😉 ). They are truly best when you wrap them well in plastic wrap and let them sit at least 3 days to ripen and deepen the flavor. These are so delicious that that first cake barely lasted 2 days and they just keep improving in flavor. Once ripened, they freeze amazing well so you can leave one out to eat and one for another time. Serve with your finest English tea and savor the moment.

Fabulous Fruitcake

For the fruit mixture:

2 heaping cups (about 140 grams) craisins or dried sweetened cranberries

1 heaping cup dried cherries

1 heaping cup (about 140 grams) raisins

1 heaping cup dates (about 140 grams), pitted and chopped about 7 large madjhool dates

1/2 cup (125 ml) Scotch, rum or brandy or orange liquor or apple cider or orange juice

For the Cake:

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon allspice

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 cups (360 grams) flour

Grated rind of a whole orange

2 cups packed (425 grams) brown sugar

1 cup (225 grams) butter/margarine

4 large eggs

1/4 cup (60 ml) corn syrup or golden syrup

1/2 cup (118 ml) orange juice

2 cups (227 grams) toasted walnuts, chopped in chunks

1/2 cup (approximately) (118 ml) maple syrup for brushing tops of cakes

Place all the dried fruits in a microwaveable bowl with the Scotch or other liquor. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and microwave 3-4 minutes till hot. Let sit around 45 minutes- 1 hour. Set aside.

Prepare two 9 x 5 loaf pans, spraying with oil spray and lining with parchment paper. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 F/180 C and when oven is hot, toast the walnuts on rimmed baking sheet for 8-10 minutes till lightly toasted. Let cool on wire rack and chop roughly with a knife.

Lower temperature to 300 F/150 C (approximately) and prepare cake batter.

Stir together in a bowl flour, baking powder, spices, orange peel and salt till blended. Place butter/margarine in mixer with brown sugar and beat smooth. Add eggs one at a time, incorporating till batter is smooth. Mix corn syrup and orange juice in cup measure and add alternating with flour mixture to mixer, beating just till smooth, scraping down sides and bottom to make sure all is combined. Add walnuts and dried fruits with any liquid in bowl to mixture and beat just till combined. Scrape batter evenly between the two loaf pans. They will be fairly full but no worries, they will not overflow the pans.

Bake 350 1 hour 40 – 1 hour 45 minutes or till wooden toothpick inserted into cake comes out with a crumb or two clinging to it but not wet.

Put on wire racks still in loaf pans and using pastry brush, put 1/4 cup maple syrup drizzled over top of cake and paint with brush on the top quickly since it absorbs the syrup fast. Repeat with second cake. Let cool completely and wrap cakes tightly in plastic wrap, letting ripen at least 2-3 days before eating. The longer it sits (about a four days to a week) the better it tastes. Freezes very well. When cake begins to get stale, fabulous lightly toasted with butter or cream cheese.