Story of Maude's Fruit Cake Recipe

Mary Alice

Everett couldn't open my letter, so I wrote it as a regular email and sent it back to him. Some of the words have changed, so I'm
sending this to you. Love, Mary Alice
----- Original Message -----
From: Mary Alice Golden
To: Bill Golden ; Everett Spees
Sent: Thursday, August 15, 2002 7:01 PM
Subject: Memories

Hello Everyone:

My brothers, Everett and Bill Spees are compiling my fathers' notes about his childhood and many other occasions of
his life. Bill called me last night (from Florida) to ask what I thought of the latest pages he had sent. He said there was something from his childhood that he would love to have, but which has benn permanently lost to him. He wanted our mother's (Maude Spees) recipe for fruit cake. She made a wonderful fruitcake and had been given the recipe by a friend from England. When I
went to sleep last night, I had a dream about the recipe and remembered that my father had given me some of Mom's recipes when she died. I had forgotten about it in the shock of losing her. I found the recipe and made copies of it. Bill will be glad. He is
quite a good cook.

While searching for the recipes, I came across quilt pieces mother had made, candles she had made, pot holders and table cloths that she had made. Then, the recipes, in her own hand. It was like spending the morning, again, with my mother.
The recipes were in her own handwriting and had stains on them from when she had used them .Even this was cozy and warm
feeling. I remembered how much she loved to cook and sew and create things on her own. She loved to share of herself with
other people. It was a wonderful, warm, experience again, to feel so much in my mother's presence, for this short period and to
realize that no one who dies is ever lost to us. What a comforting realization. What a wonderful feeling. Mother was smiling at
me.
Love to all,
Mary Alice Spees Golden

Bill's view

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

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.