Our neighbor down the street stopped us yesterday on our walk and yelled at his son to go into the house to “get us a little something.” His gift turned out to be a small sweet potato custard, a family holiday favorite that he and his son had just finished making. We often pause to say hello and chat with the fellow, an African-American gentleman who uses a wheelchair and cane for his mobility. He also fixes and restores cars and our conversations over the years have ranged from the weather and classic cars to cooking and race relations. Carrying the warm sweet potato custard home, I was glad to have a little something to gift back: fruitcake.
I know . . . you may be rolling your eyes but my family likes fruitcake. It is like a giant version of Vietnamese mooncake (banh Trung Thu) with all the sweetmeats, nuts, and liquor. American friends would gift them to my parents when we first arrived in America and my husband’s aunt would make them for Christmas. Alas, those sources are gone so I make my own, with tropical Asian elements such as candied ginger and citron (e.g., Buddha’s hand), as well as cashews, black pepper and lime leaf.
There are many recipes for fruitcake, as I discovered while paging through the “Cakes” volume of Time Life’s Good Cook Series from the early 1980s. Some are for weddings, some are “white,” most are for the holidays. In the fall, dried nuts and fruit are a great way to savor past harvests. Their jewel tone colors are gorgeous too.
Then there’s the booze – my favorite part of fruitcake. Lots of it to flavor and moisten the dense cake. After decades of eating and making fruitcake I had this realization this year: If you like trail mix and liquor, you gotta like fruitcake. It’s essentially those ingredients held together in cake batter.
Here’s how I made this year’s batch – which I baked in large and small pans for family and friends.
Make a half batch, if you like, though fruitcake keeps for a while.
RECIPE
Tropical Fruitcake
Yields: 8 mini-loaves or 2 large cakes
Ingredients
7 cups of dried fruit and candied sweetmeats, such as:
- 1 ½ cups raisins
- 1 ½ cups dried cranberries
- 1 cup dried or liquor soaked cherries
- 1 cup roughly chopped candied ginger
- 2 cups roughly chopped candied citron, pineapple and/or the crazy colored mixed stuff
- 1 tablespoon finely grated tangerine, orange, and/or lime zest
- 6 tender kaffir/makrut or regular lime leaves, minced, optional
- ½ cup freshly squeezed tangerine or orange juice
- 1 ¼ cups brandy, Chinese sorghum and rose petal liquor (mei kwei Lu chiu) or orange-flavored liquor (e.g., triple sec, Cointreau), divided
- 2 teaspoons orange blossom water, almond extract or vanilla extract
4 ½ cups roasted/toasted nuts and seeds, such as:
- 2 cups unsalted, roasted pecans
- 1 ½ cups unsalted, roasted cashews
- 1 cup unsalted, roasted almonds
Batter:
- 2 cups all-purpose bleached flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- Generous ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 6 large eggs, at room temperature
Instructions
- Put all the dried fruit and sweetmeats in a large bowl. Add the zest, lime leaf, juice, ⅔ cup of the liquor, and orange blossom water or extract. Combine well with a spatula, separating any large chunks. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside to plump up and marinate for 3 hours, stirring a couple times to ensure even exposure to the liquid.
- Meanwhile, butter your pans. There will be about 12 cups total so look for pans that can hold 16 cups total (8 baby loaf pans, for example). Line the bottom with parchment and butter the parchment. Flour the pans, tapping each against the sink to remove excess flour. Set aside.
- Add all the nuts to the bowl of dried fruit and sweetmeats. Stir to combine well. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and black pepper. Mix to coat well.
- Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 300ºF.
- Use an electric mixer to beat butter and sugar until creamy and light. Add the eggs and beat to combine well. Add in the extract and orange blossom water. Keep beating until the mixture is pale yellow and thick. Have the prepared pans nearby.
- Pour the egg mixture over the fruit and nuts. Use your hands to combine all the ingredients, making sure that nothing is clumped together and each piece is coated with batter. Scoop up gobs of the mixture and put them inside the prepared pans, pushing the cake mixture to the corners so the cake has a nice shape. Level the top with a rubber spatula, then bang each pan against the counter to settle the mixture. Slide into the oven and bake for about 1 hour to 1 ¾ hours, depending on the size of the pan, switching directions mid-way for even baking. The fruitcake is done when a skewer insert comes out clean, and the top is slightly cracked and rounded.
- Allow the cakes to cool for 20 minutes before unmolding. Use a skewer to poke holes all over the cakes. Then brush or pour on the remaining liquor all over. Set aside to cool completely. Put in an airtight container and let age for at least 48 hours (some say a week!) before eating. Refrigerate and return to room temperature before serving. To freeze for up to a year, encase the cake in cheesecloth, sprinkle with some of the liquor and wrap in foil.
Other holiday sweets to bake:
- Christmas Yule Log (Buche de Noel) -- requires a little time but boy, it is delicious, decorative and impressive
- Tangerine Meringue Kisses -- quite simple and fun
