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Story of Maude's Fruit Cake RecipeMary Alice
Bill's viewMaude's
Fruit Cake (Maude Spees ca. 1940) 1 lb. Sugar (2¼ cups) 1 lb. Butter 1 lb. Flour (4 cups) ¼ cup Flour (extra, for
dredging) 1 tsp Baking Powder 10 Eggs 1 tsp Salt 1 tsp Cinnamon 1 tsp Nutmeg 1 tsp Cloves 1 lb. Dates 1 lb. Currants ½ cup Raisins ½ cup Citron ¼ cup Orange Peel ¼ cup Lemon Peel ¼ cup Candied Pineapple 2 cup Nuts (she meant
walnuts, sometimes pecans) ½ cup Candied Whole
Cherries 2 tbs Orange Juice 1 jar Maraschino Cherries Procedure Chop fruits and nuts (reserving enough nut halves to cover roughly half
of the top of the cake). Dredge the
chopped fruits and nuts in ¼ cup of flour. Cream the shortening and butter; add eggs, one at a time, beating after
each egg. Sift all dry ingredients twice and add to creamed mixture
alternating with chopped fruits and nuts, and beat thoroughly. Add the orange juice. Line a tube pan with greased aluminum foil. Pour in batter. Bake at 250° to 300° for four to six hours. Put a pan of water in the bottom of the oven 1 to 2 hours
before the cake is done. Decorate
the top with the jar of cherries and nut halves, shortly before baking time is
over. Let cake cool. Soak cake in brandy or wine for about a month.
Pour 6 tbs of brandy into cake and wrap closely with cloth dampened in
brandy. Store in airtight
container. This
cake is one of my fondest memories of Mom.
It was dark and rich. She
would make it around Thanksgiving and keep it in a big heavy Dutch oven under
the bed. When she sent me out to play in South Dakota, she knew that
the slice of fruitcake in my pocket would keep me alive till Spring, if I should
get lost. This
fruitcake is nothing like the fruitcakes that you buy and give to someone at the
holidays—and the next year, you get back the very same one, after the
recipient used it for a door stop all year..
When
I married on Christmas, this was what I made as the groom’s cake.
Alas, nothing remained of the cake.
The marriage is still going strong after twenty-six years. |