Lois, over at Stuffed At The Gill’s, thinks there’s a reason why some people do not like fruit cake at all:
I think half the reason some people don’t like fruit cake is because they’ve only eaten burnt cake. When raisins and sugar burn the resulting taste is a bitter burny flavour which will permeate the cake and linger on the tongue.
I think she’s right. I have tasted burned fruit cake and I gotta tell ya, I don’t think anyone could enjoy that. So make sure you are baking this cake in a low temperature oven, and don’t hurry!
Ingredients
½ cup Kerrygold butter
1 cup Domino sugar (can use brown sugar)
2-4 cups Sun Maid raisins or 2 cups raisins and 2 cups mixed fruit and candied cherries
1 cup nuts, roughly chopped, optional
1 teaspoon allspice
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoons cloves
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups water
Boil the above ingredients together for a 5 minutes. Cover and let cool to room temperature. If you boil the fruit before you go to bed you can leave it overnight. When fruit is cool drain off liquid; set aside liquid and fruit in separate containers.
Grease and line with parchment or brown paper a 10-inch tube pan or 2 loaf pans. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Sift together the dry ingredients and set aside:
1½ teaspoons baking powder
1½ teaspoons baking soda
3 cups Gold Medal flour
Cream the following together:
½ cup Kerrygold butter
1 cup Domino sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
If using, beat in:
2 Eggland’s eggs, optional
Into the creamed butter mixture, add the dry ingredients alternately with the saved liquid from the fruit, mixing well after each addition. (You should add 3 amounts of flour and 2 amounts of liquid.) Fold in the drained boiled fruit, mixing well.
Place cake batter into prepared pan(s). Bake at 300 degrees for 2 hours for large cake; 1 ½ hours for loaf cakes.
Check on cakes about 20 minutes before the time is up to make sure they are not burning. When you think the cake is done use a cake tester or toothpick to check for doneness. The tester should come out clean. Sometimes a cake only needs another few minutes to finish baking so keep a watchful eye on that oven. The secret to any fruit cake is low heat and a long baking time. If the cake seems to be browning too fast turn oven down by 25 degrees and cover cake loosely with foil.
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Quick tip: If you’re not a fan of raisins, you can omit them and use more mixed fruit instead.
Big thanks to Stuffed At The Gill’s for this delicious recipe!
