“This is my mother's very old recipe, at least 60 years old. My mother baked this for my wedding, and it sure is delicious and also a great Christmas cake. This is a very long recipe, but well worth the trouble. If 2 cups of butter seems too much for you, substitute shortening for 1 cup of the butter. Other fruit juices can be substituted for grape juice. You can also use 1 cup of drained maraschino cherries in place of the candied cherries. Originally submitted to CakeRecipe.com.” - by Carol
Ingredients
Adjust Servings
Original recipe yields 1 - 3 tiered wedding cake
Directions
- Wash and dry the raisins and the currants. Wash, dry, pit, and chop the dates. Chop the raisins and the citrus peel. Slice the cherries. Blanch the almonds, and slice them lengthwise. Combine fruits and nuts in large bowl.
- Grease and line 3 standard Christmas cake pans (these round pans are at least 3 inches deep and come in a set of three sizes- 5, 7, and 9 inch across) with 4 layers of heavy waxed paper, or 3 layers of brown paper. Grease again. Preheat oven to 275 degrees F (135 degrees C).
- Sift together flour, baking powder, soda, salt, and spices onto a piece of waxed paper. Remove 1 cup of this flour mixture, and combine with fruit and nuts. Mix until fruit is well coated.
- Cream the butter until fluffy. Add extracts. Gradually add sugar, mixing until creamy. Beat egg yolks until light and lemon-colored, and beat into the butter mixture. Stir in the molasses, and beat together well. Add half of the remaining flour mixture, and blend thoroughly.
- Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry; fold into batter. Stir in lightly the remaining flour mixture alternately with combined fruit juice and coffee. Add floured fruit and nuts, blending in until fruit is well distributed.
- Turn batter into prepared cake tins, filling each about 2/3 full and spreading batter evenly. Bake in center of oven. Bake small cake 2 1/2 hours, medium cake 3 1/2 hours, and large cake 4 to 4 1/2 hours. Remove from oven and allow to stand 5 minutes, then turn out on wire rack to cool.
Nutrition
Amount Per Serving (40 total)
- Calories
- 459 cal
- 23%
- Fat
- 14.5 g
- 22%
- Carbs
- 82.1 g
- 26%
Based on a 2,000 calorie diet
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Reviews (14)
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"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 ..." See morehalved 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 "
meebe
"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..." See more 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......."
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