No time to do anything at all this week, but at least I got to my fruitcakes. My mother made them always, and one of the most fabulous things I remember is my mother’s banana bread. I’ve never been able to replicate it, nor have I tasted anyone else’s that came close to hers. She was a baker. Her fruitcakes, however, suffered from whatever induced women to buy and use colored and perhaps dyed fruit. But she did it every year and then she couldn’t and I wanted to do something in her memory. I make 14, one pound fruitcakes every year, and it takes all day. But unless you are thoroughly against fruitcakes on principle, this one is quite satisfying. And her recipe, written on a note card, was called Texas Fruitcake.
Texas Fruitcake
This recipe makes, as I said, 14 one pound cakes. You can buy these tins very cheaply almost anywhere. Halve the recipe if you want.
3/4 lb dried dates
1.5 lbs dried figs
3/4 lb dried cherries
3/4 lb dried currants
1 lb dark raisins
1 lb golden raisins
2 lbs roasted hazelnuts, chopped
1 lb butter
3/4 lb brown sugar
3/4 lb organic white sugar
12 eggs
1 lb flour
1 tbls cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1.5 tsps fresh ground nutmeg
1.5 tsps baking soda
1 tsp salt
2.5 tbls. milk
1/2 cup lemon juice
zest from all lemons used
1.25 tbls vanilla
cheesecloth
brandy (almost an entire fifth), and Christian Brothers is fine.
wax paper
tin foil
Cut up any fruit that needs cutting up and mix all the fruit and nuts in a large bowl. Melt the butter, then add it to the sugars and blend well. Beat eggs well and add to the butter mixture. Weigh out the flour, extract 1/2 cup and mix it in with the fruit/nut mixture. Mix the remaining flour with the spices, soda and salt. Add to egg/sugar/butter mixture. Add the milk and lemon juice, zest and vanilla to egg mixture. Mix well. Pour over the fruits and nuts. Mix well. Grease bread tins, line with wax paper and grease again (I use butter). Fill pans all the way up, pressing down to even out the mix. Bake in a 250 degree oven for at least 1.5 hours. Check at that time by pressing into the cake with your fingers. This is the trickiest part of cooking the cakes. I cook mine for about 1 hour 45 minutes, but every oven is different. They’re done when if you press into the cake, it has give and feels a little under done. Place the cakes on cooling racks (I use a bunch of chop sticks). Let sit for about 15 minutes, and then remove them from their pans, leaving them on the cooling racks. Cool out of their pans completely. Wrap each cake doubly in cheesecloth, soak in brandy and then double wrap in foil. Put them in a cool, dry place for at least a month. I make my cakes at the end of October and they’re good for Christmas.