FruitCake

Fruitcake Recipe
Ingredients:
one store bought fruitcake.
one fifth of good brandy.
Instructions:
Toss the fruitcake in the garbage can.
Drink the brandy. :)

Trappist fc in Conyers, GA is the best! Peach Brandy soaked and delicious.

IDman wrote:
Collins Street Bakery in Corsicana, Tx. are pretty darned good!

YEP theirs is the best. Period.

For years I was never brave enough to try fruitcake, mostly because of the bad press it gets. Then when I married, DH, his Uncle Bill's fruitcake was famous at Christmas time. I finally got the nerve to try it one year and I was smitten. It was just wonderful. The key was there was no flour in it. All fruit and nuts, much like a recipe that has already been posted.

So I asked Uncle Bill for the recipe. . . it was all from memory, cup of this, cup of that. . . put it in a S L O W oven and bake for a couple hours or however long it takes. Hmmmmph. I can follow directions, but that was just. . . . incomplete for me.

So I went on line to find one with the ingredients he used complete with do-able instructions and I have been making it every Christmas now for years. My parents love it. . . and my Mom HATES fruitcake. I have never used liquor on my fruitcakes. . . not a taste I like, but it could be done I suppose.

World's Best Fruitcake


Ingredients

14 ounces sweetened flaked coconut
8 ounces chopped sugar rolled dates
16 ounces pecan pieces
8 ounces candied cherries (1/2 red, 1/2 green)
8 ounces diced candied pineapple
2 (14 ounce) cans sweetened condensed milk

Directions

Place coconut, dates, and pecan pieces in a very large (7 quart or larger) bowl. With your hands break up chunks of dates & coconut, and stir those 3 ingredients together.
Add the cherries, pineapple, and sweetened condensed milk. Stir thoroughly. (I wear non-powdered surgical gloves, and stir it with my hands because the mixture is very stiff.).
Let set at room temperature while you prepare the pans. Spray 2 - 9"x5" loaf pans with Pam. Line the pans with waxed (or parchment) paper. (We cut parchment paper in 4 1/4"x 16 1/4" strips for this. You want the paper to come up past the short sides of the pans after the mixture is packed into the pans.) Now spray the paper (after you've pressed it into the pans) with Pam.
Stir the ingredients well again.Divide the ingredients equally between the 2 loaf pans.
Pack VERY TIGHTLY and smoothly into the pans. (I wet my hands & press, pack down, & smooth top, using both hands. Wetting your hands keeps them from sticking to "batter".).
Place the pans on the middle rack of the oven and bake at 300 degrees F for 1 hour, or until lightly browned. (If the cakes have baked for an hour, or look a little brown around the edges, take them out of the oven & lift edges of paper a little to see if sides look brown enough. If they're brown on sides, but not on top, you may broil the tops for a few minutes-watch carefully.).

I really liked the Collins Street Bakery fruit cakes also. terry r.

Collins Street Bakery in Corsicana, Tx. are pretty darned good!

I've made King Arthur's mix the last 2 years and it is pretty good after proper treatment. A fifth of Captain Morgans Spiced Rum is necessary to treat properly.

X2 to the Texas Pecan Fruitcake. My Mom used to make that every year and I loved it.

I have my grandmother's Farmers Fruitcake recipe. It has none of the candied fruit in it. Canned fruit that she would have grown on the farm. If you are looking for something old fashioned and different, say so and I'll post the recipe. I love it, but don't make it often as I just can't keep my hands off it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FULLTIMEWANABE wrote:
We are very much prep at home foodies and bakers all year around. This traditional British Style Christmas cake ideally should be made up to 2 months in advance - if you have the time, feed it with brandy/rum in the run up to Christmas for a very rich moist cake. I tend to pipe icing some years and other years if rushed make rough peaks placing silver mini balls on and sprig of holly plus a ribbon around. Makes the table centre piece every year in our family get together.

Ingredients
225g/8oz plain flour
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp mixed spice
½ tsp ground cinnamon
200g/7oz butter
200g/7oz dark brown sugar
2 tbsp black treacle
1 tbsp marmalade
¼ tsp vanilla essence
4 free-range eggs, lightly beaten
800g/1¾lb mixed dried fruits
100g/3½oz chopped mixed peel
150g/5oz glacé cherries, halved
100g/3½oz blanched almonds, chopped
brandy

To decorate
200g/7oz marzipan
1-2 tbsp apricot jam, warmed

For the royal icing
3 free-range egg whites
600g/1lb 5oz icing sugar, sieved
1½ tsp liquid glycerine - optional
1 tbsp lemon juice

Preparation:
Heat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas2. Grease a 20cm/8inch round or an 18cm/7inch square cake tin and line the bottom and sides with baking parchment.
Sieve the flour, salt, mixed spice and cinnamon into a bowl.
Cream the butter and the sugar in a large mixing bowl and then mix in the sugar, treacle, marmalade and vanilla essence until light and fluffy.
Mix the eggs a little at a time into the mixture adding a tablespoon of flour mixture with the last amount.
Fold in the remaining flour mixture until well mixed and then mix in the dried fruit, mixed peel, glace cherries and the almonds.
Turn the mixture into the prepared tin and make a slight hollow in the centre.

Bake in the oven low heat for 3 hours and then test with a skewer. If not ready bake for up to another hour testing every 20 minutes until the skewer comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes.
Turn out on to a wire rack and leave to cool.
Once cool, make a few holes in the cake with a skewer and pour over 3-4 tbspof brandy. Let the brandy soak into the cake.
Store the cake wrapped in foil and in an airtight tin or plastic container, holes side up.

OPTIONAL: For a rich and moist cake, spoon over a few tablespoons of brandy every week until you are ready to ice and decorate your cake.

To decorate the cake, place the cake on a foil board or cake plate:
Dust your hands and the work surface with a little icing sugar and knead the marzipan until soft.
Roll out half the marzipan to fit the top of the cake and roll out the rest in strips to fit around the sides of the cake.
Brush the cake all over with the warmed apricot jam and then place the marzipan on top and around the cake.mins

Cover the cake with a clean tea towel and then leave in a cool place for at least one day.

To make the icing, lightly whisk the egg whites adding the sugar at intervals. Beat well until the icing reaches soft peaks. Add the glycerine if using and the lemon juice.

Spread icing all over cake either flat iced using a clean ruler or by forming soft peaks. You can make the finish as elaborate or basic as you chose. Decorate with Christmas ornaments, ribbon or piped icing and mini edible balls.

Love that treacle! Now I want a treacle tart ;)