If you want to make fruitcake, you need to plan ahead. A week before I plan on baking the cakes, I prepare the fruit. I used to carefully measure the amounts, but in recent years, I just get a lot of fruit haha. I take my once a year trip to Trader Joes. That store doesn't really fit my day to day food needs, but they have a nice variety of dried fruit, and a decent price on them. I try to grab a bag or two of all the kinds I can find. This year I got two kinds of apricots, black and golden raisins, blueberries, cranberries, apples, pears, peaches, cherries, and instead of nuts I got a bag of salted and shelled sunflower seeds. While I was at the store I also got a bottle of brandy, five navel oranges, and four lemons.
I ended up making 35 mini loafs. I'm sure most people wont be making this much, so I'll write down a smaller recipe...
Pick out your fruit and nuts. Try to get around 3.5 lbs (1200g) total... a bit more wont hurt thought :b
Put the fruit in a large tub with a lid. Make sure to chop up the larger pieces of fruit so everything is the size of the raisins. Pour 1/2 cup (120ml) of brandy over the fruit and mix it in. Place the lid on the tub and store it in the fridge for at least three days.
Take the peels of one orange and one lemon and chop them up into small pieces. Set aside. In a small sauce pan add 1/2 cup (120g) of sugar, and 1/2 (120ml) cup of water. Bring to a boil and let it boil for two minutes. Add the chopped up citrus peels and cook for another four minutes. Cool, and store in the fridge until it's time to bake the cakes.
The cake batter:
10oz (285g) of softened unsalted butter
10oz (285g) granulated sugar
5 large eggs
2 tablespoons (30ml) golden syrup*
2 tablespoons (30ml) brandy
grated zest of one lemon and one orange
12 oz (340g) all purpose flour
Mix the cake using the creaming method: Start with the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl. Cream them together until they are light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing each one in thoroughly before adding the next. Be sure the scrape down the side of the bowl half way through to make sure there aren't any butter lumps. Next stir in the golden syrup, brandy, and zest. Finally fold in the flour with a wooden spoon or rubber bowl scraper.
In a larger bowl put in the fruit from the fridge, and the candied citrus peels. Mix the peels in with all their syrup, and then pour the batter in. Stir this all together, and now you're ready to bake.
I like to make mini loafs, but you can also make big loafs, or even cake rounds. The cake does not rise that much, so whatever amount you put into a pan, is about the sized loaf you will get. Be sure to grease and flour the pans before putting the batter in.
Heat the oven to 300F (149C). Bake your cakes for 1 hour at this temperature, then turn the oven down to 275F (135C). I can't really give you a time for this last bake because it depends on the size of your loafs. For smaller loafs, check on them in a half hour, for larger loaves, 45 minutes. You should be able to stab a paring knife into the center and have it come out clean with no raw batter. I also like to have a dark golden brown color (colour).
Once the cakes are baked, try to get them out of the pans, as soon as you're able to without burning yourself, and let them cool on a rack.
While they are cooling. Make a simple syrup. Add 1 cup (240ml) of water, and 1 cup (240g) of sugar to a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil for three minutes. After letting it cool a bit, add 1 cup (240ml) of brandy.
On a clean counter, or cookie sheet lay out all the cakes upside-down and use a paring knife to stab the loaves down to the center several times evenly over the bottom. Then use a pastry brush to brush the brandy syrup over the bottoms of the cakes. Be liberal with this and let it soak in. Then flip over the cakes and repeat the stabbing and brushing process on the tops.
Either wrap up, or store the loaves in a large tub with a lid. Take them out each day for a week or two, and brush them with more brandy syrup. If you run out, just make some more. If you follow this step carefully, the cakes can survive for a few months at room temperature as long as their wrapped. They can last up to a year in the freezer... but really you should just eat them up or give them to your friends.
*a note on the golden syrup. This is a British product. I can usually find some in the grocery store next to the pancake syrup. Look for Lyle's Golden Syrup. It's basically sugar and water cooked until it's thick like corn syrup, and looks golden. It has a wonderful toasted sugar flavor (flavour). If you can't find any, you could substitute it with thick corn syrup, but it's really worth trying to find the real stuff. It's also great to use in place of corn syrup in other recipes. I've been trying avoid using corn syrup in general, so this stuff is great to have in the kitchen. One of these days, I'm going to try making my own.
Let me know if you try to make the recipe. I'd love to hear how it turned out, and what fruit you used.
thank you so much for publishing this. i really appreciate it. now i have something to look forward to this fall. hopefully i'd have retired by then. the photo looks so real i might make them as early as march. or next week. :-D thank you again.
Sift together:
1 c + 2T flour
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1C + 2T brown sugar
Add:
3C dates
2 1/4 c dried apricots
4 1/2 C walnuts
Stir to coat with flour mixture.
Beat 5 eggs until foamy, and add 1 1/2 t vanilla.
Mix egg mixture with flour/fruit/nuts.
Bake in 4 small loaf pans, greased and lined with greased, waxed paper.
300 degrees for 1 1/2 hours.
Ok, so seeing his recipe in his recipe box and typing this made me cry because this is one of my favorite things he made. He would bake them so I could take them as special gifts to relatives in Japan or friends in Korea, or wherever I was going internationally where I had run out of "American" gift ideas of what to take.
I used to not like dates that much, but lately I've been getting into them. My neighbor gave me some with some cheese for Christmas, and I absolutely loved putting the sliced dates on some cheese.