Chocolate Cherry Fruitcake Food

CHOCOLATE-CHERRY FRUITCAKE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F (180C.).
• A day or so before you make the cake, toss the cherries in 1/4 cup liquor. Cover, and let macerate (soak up the liquor).
• To bake the cakes, grease two 9-inch(23cm)loaf pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper and dust with cocoa powder.
• Sift together the flour, cocoa, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
• In the bowl of a standing mixer, or by hand,.
• beat the butter and sugar until very light and fluffy. Stir together the eggs and yolk with the vanilla, then dribble them in while beating.
• Mix in one-third of the flour/cocoa mixture, then half of the buttermilk or yogurt. Then mix in another third of the dry ingredients, then the rest of the yogurt or buttermilk. Finally, add the remaining dry ingredients, and gently stir in the nuts, chocolate chips and cherries.(which should have absorbed all the liquid. If not, add that as well.).
• Divide and smooth the batter into the prepared loaf pans and bake for 45 minutes, or unril a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let stand on the counter-top for about 15 minutes.
• With a skewer, poke about 50 holes in the cake and spoon 3 tablespoons of liquor over each cake. Let cool.

CHERRY FRUITCAKE

Steps:

• Using a tube pan (line bottom with two greased layers of greased waxed paper, and grease sides of pan); or using two loaf pans or eight mini-loaf pans (line bottom/sides with two greased layers of waxed paper). Be generous with shortening on the layer next to the cake.
• Cut pineapple, red and green cherries in half; cut dates in 3 pieces.Using hands, combine pineapple, cherries, dates, and pecans in a large bowl. Add sugar, mix well, and set aside for 10 minutes.
• Beat eggs& vanilla until light and fluffy; pour over fruit and nut mixture. Using hands, mix well. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Pour on above mixture until"syrupy", again, using hands.
• Preheat oven to 275°F Add cake mixture evenly to pans and pack down tightly. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean, approximately 90 minutes for a tube pan; 1 1/4 hr for 2 loaf pans; and check starting after an hour for mini-loaf pans.
• Remove cake (s) from oven, cool slightly, and remove waxed paper while still warm.

CHOCOLATE CHIP CHERRY FRUITCAKE LOAF

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325 F and have ready a greased 9x5" loaf pan.
• Beat eggs and sugar in a large bowl until well combined.
• In another large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.
• Add flour mixture to egg mixture and mix well.
• Add nuts, dates or raisins, 1 cup cherry halves,& the chocolate chips and stir gently to combine.
• Pour into a greased 9x5" loaf pan(mixture will be very thick).
• Garnish top with a row of cherry halves down the center of the batter- press gently so they stick.
• Bake in a preheated 325 F oven for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours or until golden and a toothpick inserted near the center comes out mostly clean (there will be streaks of melted chocolate but not gobs of beige batter) - DO NOT OVERBAKE or it will be as hard as a rock.
• Let cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and let cool completely.
• Usually I slice the loaf after it has cooled and seal it in a plastic zip-top bag, which helps keep it from hardening up.