Really Good Fruitcake Food

REALLY GOOD FRUITCAKE

Steps:

• Place pineapple, figs, apples, persimmons, peaches, golden raisins, cinnamon stick, bourbon, and brandy in a large bowl; stir to coat fruit in liquid. Cover and let stand at room temperature 24 hours, stirring once every 8 hours. Discard cinnamon stick.
• Preheat oven to 300°F. Spray 2 8.5x4.5-inch loaf pans with baking spray; line pans with parchment paper, leaving a 2 inch overhang on the two long sides. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, ground cinnamon, and nutmeg in a medium bowl; set aside. Place butter in the bowl of a large stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat butter on medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add sugar to butter and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, beating until just incorporated. Beat in vanilla. Add flour mixture to mixer bowl; beat on low until just combined, about 30 seconds.
• Remove mixer bowl from mixer. Fold in zests, juice, cherries, pecans, and soaked fruit mixture. Batter will be very thick. Divide batter evenly among prepared pans. Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center of each fruitcake comes out clean, about 1 hour 15 minutes.
• Place pans on a wire rack to cool completely, about 2 hours. Remove fruitcakes from pans. Slice to serve, or if storing, dampen cheesecloth with bourbon and wrap fruitcake tightly with cheesecloth, then wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Store in the refrigerator up to 1 month, changing cheesecloth once a week. To store for a short period of time (less than 1 week), wrap tightly with plastic wrap and store in refrigerator.

THE WORLD'S BEST FRUITCAKE

Steps:

• 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" and 8"x 12 1/2" strips for this. You want the paper to come up past the sides of the pans after the mixture is packed into the pans. It seems like a lot of work, but it's well worth the effort!) 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.).
• Remove cakes from oven and let cool for 10 minutes in the pans.
• Gently lift the edges of the paper a couple of times on each side - kind of a rocking motion. Turn pans upside down onto a paper-lined cookie sheet. Lift pans from the cakes. Remove paper from bottom of cakes IMMEDIATELY.
• Let cool completely. Place in a large container (don't wrap yet) and refrigerate overnight.
• Turn cake upside down to slice. After slicing, wrap in waxed (or parchment) paper, then in heavy duty aluminum foil.
• May be refrigerated up to 3 months or frozen up to 1 year.

FREE RANGE FRUITCAKE

Steps:

• Combine dried fruits, candied ginger and both zests. Add rum and macerate overnight, or microwave for 5 minutes to re-hydrate fruit.
• Place fruit and liquid in a non-reactive pot with the sugar, butter, apple juice and spices. Bring mixture to a boil stirring often, then reduce heat and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat and cool for at least 15 minutes. (Batter can be completed up to this point, then covered and refrigerated for up to 2 days. Bring to room temperature before completing cake.)
• Heat oven to 325 degrees.
• Combine dry ingredients and sift into fruit mixture. Quickly bring batter together with a large wooden spoon, then stir in eggs one at a time until completely integrated, then fold in nuts. Spoon into a 10-inch non-stick loaf pan and bake for 1 hour. Check for doneness by inserting toothpick into the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean, it's done. If not, bake another 10 minutes, and check again.
• Remove cake from oven and place on cooling rack or trivet. Baste or spritz top with brandy and allow to cool completely before turning out from pan.
• When cake is completely cooled, seal in a tight sealing, food safe container. Every 2 to 3 days, feel the cake and if dry, spritz with brandy. The cake's flavor will enhance considerably over the next two weeks. If you decide to give the cake as a gift, be sure to tell the recipient that they are very lucky indeed.

CLASSIC FRUITCAKE

Steps:

• For the fruit soak, toss the candied orange peel and all of the dried and candied fruits together with the sherry (or brandy), orange juice, orange zest, lemon zest and ginger. Cover and chill this mixture at least overnight, up to 3 days, stirring occasionally.
• Preheat the oven to 300 F and grease 2 9-inch round cake pans.
• Beat the butter and brown sugar until well light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the ground almonds.
• In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt and stir this into the batter. Stir in ¼ cup of the sherry or brandy. Fold the chopped pecans into the batter then add the soaked fruits, stirring well to coat the fruit. Spoon this into the prepared pans and spread to level. If you wish, arrange pecans on the top of the cakes in a ring. Bake the cakes for 2 hours and 15 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.
• While still hot from the oven, brush the tops of the fruitcakes with some of the remaining ½ cup of sherry or brandy. Brush again one or 2 more times as the cakes cool, then remove the cakes from their pans and wrap well.
• The fruitcakes will keep for up to 8 weeks in a cool place, or can be frozen for up to 6 months.

BOILED FRUITCAKE

Steps:

• Preheat your oven to 350f.
• Place the sugar, water, fruit, peel, glace cherries, almond, spices, soda and butter in a saucepan.
• Bring to the boil stirring constantly.
• Remove from the heat when it reaches the boil, and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
• Add the beaten egg, sifted flours and pour into a prepared tin-greased and lined 7 inch square or 8 inch round cake tin.
• Bake for 1 hour, allow to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before removing to cool on a rack.

MOIST FRUITCAKE

Steps:

• Place dried fruit, golden syrup, brandy and rind in a large bowl cover and stand overnight.
• Grease a deep 20cm square cake pan, line with 3 layers of paper, allow paper to come 5cm above the sides of the pan.
• Cream butter and sugar in small bowl with electric mixer until creamy, Add eggs one at a time, beat well between each addition. The mixture may curdle but this will not affect the end result.
• Add soaked fruit, flour and mixed spice to butter mixture and mix thoroughly.
• Spoon mixture into pan and drop pan onto bench to settle contents.
• Bake at 140°C for 4 hours turning pan a quarter turn several times through the cooking time to allow it to cook evenly,.
• If the cake starts to over brown on top, cover lightly with foil.
• Remove cake from oven when cooked and brush top with extra brandy, allow to cool in pan.
• When cool remove from pan and wrap in clear plastic and store in a airtight tin or wrap in foil.