My parents have a hallmark fruitcake made in Texas the memory of which I was working against in making this recipe at my father's request. Given that there are only three of us sharing Christmas I halved the recipe and took some liberties because of what we had in the kitchen as well as trying to match the Empress Fruitcake of Yore. I added dried apricots and some withered blueberries because of what we had on hand and omitted the sultanas and currents going heavier on dates. I also substituted pecans for almonds. My father also wanted the taste of burbon so I soaked the raisins in burbon for a few days drained them well and used the burbon-raisin juice instead of coffee and grape juice. I suggest that you read the recipe carefully for the myriad of steps -- beaten egg whites beaten egg yolks and the flour mixtures all in separate bowls that converge quite quickly. It makes for a BIG project and heavy clean up. The recipe also calls for three differently sized "Christmas cake" pans the like of which I've never seen and do not see the reason for -- it's not a stacked cake after all. I used loaf pans and baked the minimum 2 1/2 hours. I used two layers of greased brown paper but only on the bottom of the pans; after running a sharp knife around the greased edges the cakes dropped out easily. The next time I make this (and I think I will -- it did essentially match that acme of fruitcakes from my childhood) -- I won't chop the fruit and nuts as small as I
This fruitcake is delicious but costs a fortune to make - definitely a once a year item! I soaked dried cranberries in rum (instead of currants) and used half white sugar and half brown sugar - other than that followed recipe. I made a couple of cupcake size ones to taste and the big one is wrapped and in the freezer for the holidays. The cupcakes tasted superb.......
I 1/3 the recipe and baked the cake for 2 and a half hours.The cake is moist and has a nice flavour. I didn't like dates so i replaced them with cashewnuts instead. I didn't change anything else. Good recipe.
Having lost my mother's recipe years ago I was thrilled to find this one so close in content. With a few changes I'm back in business. Thank you so much
best fruit cake!! I cooked this fruitcake for my sister who is the fruitcake-mania. it will be great taste after ageing 1week. I marrinade dried fruit with bourbon for 3 days and simmer it for 20 min.
I made this recipe for Christmas; I gave one of the cakes to my mom she and my father love it. She gave some to her friends and they all say the cake reminds them of their mother's fruitcake.
I made this fruitcake for Christmas last year because my family and I love dark spicy fruitcakes but noticed too late (after using about 15 worth of ingredients - since I doubled the recipe to make some little ones as gifts) that the amount of cloves it calls for is excessive at least double what would be adequate. Also as others discovered it required at least an hour more baking time than the recipe states so I put a pan of water on the lower oven rack to keep it from drying out. The texture was fine but the heaping helping of cloves gave it a strong medicinal taste that overpowered the other flavors. My mom likes spicy fruitcakes too but she also noticed this. I'm only using two teaspoons of cloves this year instead of the two tablespoons called for and am sure it will come out great.
Had a hankering to taste the flavor I remembered from my childhood in the late '50s from an Irish aunt who made fruitcakes and you hit it right on the button. Thanks;)
I made this two years ago it was fabulous! I lost the recipe and have been looking for it ever since. So glad I found it again.
This is a good fruitcake, but it's nothing like I expected. My grandmother made a DARK fruitcake. This one is not very dark at all. I searched my dad's house for her recipe and found a really old cookbook that had a similar recipe to this one. The difference is it calls for 4oz. of dark unsweetened chocolate squares. When I told my dad he remembered her putting bakers chocolate in her cake. Her cake never lasted until new years. The book also used Mace in the spices.
