Fruitcakes for the Holidays (updated)

Update: Use the banyo maria or Baño Maria (or bake steaming) to prevent over-drying of your fruit cake.

It’s the time of the year when one needs to plan for the holidays. As early as September, I already know what to bake for Christmas. A childhood memory that never fails to remind me of the Christmas season is Fruitcake. I used to bake a lot of fruitcake in the past but the girls never really got around to acquiring a taste for it. They preferred the Gingerbread Man Cookies because of the story behind it after I bake the first batch. That’s my then 16 year old daughter, Lauren when she helped me with my fruitcakes a few years ago. Fruitcake flavor is best when it has been aged for a few months in a cool place (preferably the refrigerator in the Philippines).

For those of you who want to bake Fruitcakes for the Holidays, here is a recipe which I call Golden Fruitcake. I’ve modified this based from my mom’s original fruitcake recipe. My Golden Fruitcake does not have a strong taste of brandy nor is it too sweet. Anyway, there’s a lot of preparation so make sure you run down the list carefully.

Here is my Golden Fruitcake recipe

Ingredients

1 Cup butter (I use Golden Crown)
1 1/1 Cup Brown Sugar
4 large eggs (1 cup) or 5 medium eggs
3 cups all purpose four
1/2 cups flour (to dredge fruits and nuts)
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 teaspon salt
1/2 cup milk
5 Tablespoon prune juice
3 Tablespoons Molasses
1/4 teaspoon baking soda (mix in molasses)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoon cinnamom
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1 1/2 cups nuts (Combination of walnuts, pecan, cashew, pili)
1 1/2 cups dates
1 1/2 cups fruit glaze
1/2 cup cherry brandy

Extra Cherries, fruit glaze,nuts for decorating on top of cake
Cherry brandy to brush top of the cake

Preparation

Fruit Mix

1. Soak fruits in 1/2 cup cherry brandy overnight.
2. Drain the fruits for 1 hour.

Preparing the Baking pan

1. Don’t use waxpaper.
2. Use thick cellphane (1 piece only) and use enough to cover the cake after baking.
3. You can also use aluminum. More messy but more sure.

Batter

1. Heat oven to slow.

2. Cream Shortening and add sugar slowly until fluffy.

3. Beat in egg one at a time, beating after each addition until light.

4. Blend Flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg.

5. Stir in alternately with milk, molasses, juices and vanilla beginning and ending with flour.

6. With 1/2 cup flour. add to fruit mixture.

7. The batter is then mixed to the fruits. Add the nuts on top of the batter.

8. Put batter in cellophane lined or aluminum lined pans (4 pans)

9. Bake for one (1) hour at 300 F. ( But do check the temperature based on the pan you use. Sometimes baking can be as short as 45 minutes to 1 hour at 325 F)

IMPORTANT: To prevent dryness in the fruit cake, use the banyo maria. Place the pans in a larger pan containing an inch of water, the result of which is bake-steaming the fruit cake batter.

10. At 45 minutes baking time, remove pans from oven and decorate top with cherries, buts and fruits.

11. Cover pan with overlapping aluminum foil to prevent burning.

12. Bake 15 more minutes until done.

After Baking

Keep cellophane or aluminum intact with the cake

After baking and the cake has cooled down, brush the top of the cake with cherry brandy

Wrap the whole cake with the overlapping cellophane or aluminum , then more aluminum foil to cover the whole cake ending with colored cellophane.

Tips

1. It’s important to drain the fruit mix for 1 hour. This is because alcohol destroys the cake batter.
2. Nuts are not placed in the batter; rather it is placed ON TOP of the batter. I still mix in the buts anyway. I use a combination of nuts.
3. Never use peanuts but do use pili, cashew, walnuts, or black walnuts.
4. The batter is mixed to the fruits so that the emulsion in the batter is not destroyed.

I have 5 recipes for fruitcake but based on my past experience, the above recipe gave me the best results.

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