"DARK FRUITCAKE" "An extravagant traditional fruitcake"
This is about as rich a fruitcake as you could possibly want to make.
1 7-lb cake
candied citron 500 g (or candied fruit and peels)
candied cherries 250 g
dark raisins 150 g
golden raisins 150 g
Calmyra figs 200 g cut into pieces
pitted dates 170 g cut into small slices
pecan halves 170 g (or walnut halves if necessary)
12 cup brandy
white flour 300 g
baking powder 10 ml
salt 10 ml
ground cinnamon 15 ml
ground nutmeg 5 ml
ground allspice 5 ml
ground cloves 5 ml
4 eggs
packed brown sugar 350 g
orange juice 25 cl
melted butter 170 g cooled
light molasses 6 cl(treacle)
Mix fruits together in a bowl. Pour brandy over fruits. Turn fruit mixture over every 20 minutes. Soaking time is a matter of taste, but two hours is typical.
Preheat oven to .TE 300 150 .
Prepare tube pan: grease sides and bottom. Line bottom and sides with greased brown paper.
In a very large bowl, mix flour, spices, baking powder, and salt. Stir until spices are evenly blended throughout.
In a third bowl beat eggs until fluffy. Add brown sugar, orange juice, molasses, and butter. Mix, making sure that all the sugar dissolves.
Pour off any liquid from fruit mixture and add the fruit and the nuts to the dry ingredients. Mix until all fruit pieces are coated. Then pour in the liquids and mix gently until you have an evenly-mixed batter.
Pour batter into pan and bake at .TE 300 150 for 1 hour. Cover pan with foil and bake for 1 hour more or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for 30 minutes before removing from pan. Peel off paper very carefully.
Put cake in cake tin lined with foil. For the next 3 to 4 weeks, sprinkle a little brandy over cake twice a week. Keep cake covered and store the tin in the refrigerator. If you prefer to omit the brandy, cover top of cake with very thin slices of apple instead.
This makes a HUGE cake. If your tube pan isn't at least there is a fair chance that it will run over; in that case, use several loaf
pans instead (fill loaf pans about half-way). A pan with a removable center will make extracting the cake much easier.
Except for mixing the liquids, an electric beater is useless for this recipe.
In the USA, candied fruits typically come in packages of the indicated sizes.
If you have to measure by volume, use
12 cups of candied citron and 1/3 cups of the candied cherries. I prefer citron instead of the mixture because there's no bitterness from the rinds, although the cake isn't so colorful. Calmyra figs are the light-colored figs most commonly seen in North America.
Difficulty: moderate.
Time:2 hours preparation (including soaking the fruit), 2 hours baking,
several weeks mellowing.
Precision: Measure batter ingredients carefully. Fruit and nut quantities are somewhat flexible.
