Christmas Fruitcake Recipes

Steps:

• Soak cherries, mango, cranberries, currants, and citron in 1/4 cup rum for at least 24 hours. Cover tightly, and store at room temperature.
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Butter a 6x3-inch round pan or loaf pan and line it with parchment paper.
• In a large bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg. Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; mix into butter and sugar in three batches, alternating with molasses and milk. Stir in soaked fruit and chopped nuts. Scrape batter into prepared pan.
• Bake in preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then sprinkle with 2 tablespoons rum.
• Cut out one piece parchment paper and one piece cheesecloth, each large enough to wrap around the cake. Moisten cheesecloth with 1 tablespoon rum. Arrange cheesecloth on top of parchment paper, and unmold cake onto it. Sprinkle top and sides of cake with remaining rum. Wrap the cheesecloth closely to the surface of the cake, then wrap with paper. Place in an airtight tin, and age for at least 10 weeks. If storing longer, douse with additional rum for every 10 weeks of storage.

Steps:

• Stir together dried fruit, candied ginger, peel, and 1/2 cup liqueur. Let stand at room temperature 3 hours or overnight.
• Cut parchment paper to line the bottom of a 7-by-3-inch or 9-by-2-inch round cake pan. Coat pan with cooking spray; line with parchment. Spray lining. Flour pan; tap out excess.
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking powder, spices, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside. Put butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle; mix on medium speed until smooth. Mix in eggs (1 at a time), molasses, and vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture; mix until smooth. Mix in fruit, nuts, and coconut.
• Pour batter into pan. Bake until a cake tester comes out clean, about 2 1/2 hours for 9-inch cake or 2 3/4 hours for 7-inch cake. If desired, brush with up to 1/2 cup liqueur. Unmold; let cool.

Steps:

• In a large bowl combine well the glacéed fruits, the raisins, the currants, 1/2 cup of the cherries, 1/2 cup of the angelica, and 3/4 cup of the rum and let the fruits macerate, covered, overnight.
• Line the bottom of a well-buttered 9 1/2-inch springform pan with a round of wax paper and butter the paper. Into a small bowl sift together the flour, the baking powder, the salt, the nutmeg, and the ginger. In the bowl of an electric mixer cream together the butter and the brown sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy and beat in 4 of the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Drain the fruit mixture in a sieve set over the batter and beat the juices into the batter. Pat the fruits dry between several thicknesses of paper towels and in a bowl toss them with 1/3 cup of the flour mixture. Stir in the remaining flour mixture into the batter, one fourth at a time, stir in the fruit mixture, the ground almonds, and the walnuts, stirring until the mixture is just combined, and turn the batter out into the prepared pan.
• Put 2 loaf pans, each filled with hot water, in a preheated 300°F. oven and put the springform pan between them. Bake the cake for 1 hour, brush the top with the remaining egg, beaten lightly, and bake the cake for 1 hour more. While the cake is baking, in a saucepan melt the apricot jam with the remaining 1 tablespoon rum over moderate heat, bring the mixture to a boil, and strain it through a fine sieve into a bowl, pressing hard on the solids.
• Let the cake cool in the pan on a rack for 30 minutes, remove the side of the pan, and invert the cake onto the rack. Remove the pan bottom and the wax paper very carefully, invert the cake onto another rack, and let it cool completely. Arrange the additional cherries and angelica decoratively on the cake, brush the top of the cake with some of the apricot glaze, reserving the remaining glaze for another use, and store the cake, wrapped in plastic wrap and foil. The cake keeps, covered, for 6 months.

Steps:

• Combine all fruits, preserves, vanilla and liquor in a large bowl. Mix well, cover with plastic wrap and store in a cool place overnight.
• Add hazelnuts, coconut and pecans to the fruits, mix well and set aside. Butter and flour four loaf pans. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
• Make batter in two batches for greater ease of working. In a large bowl, cream 1 cup of butter until it is light and fluffy. Beat in 1 cup of brown sugar, a little at a time. Beating continuously, add 6 eggs, one at a time.
• Mix flour and spices together and sift half the mixture over batter. Fold together well.
• Mix half the fruits and nuts into batter and turn into two loaf pans. For second batch, repeat the last three steps with remaining ingredients.
• Cover loaf pans with aluminum foil and place in preheated oven. Bake for 2 hours. Remove foil and bake 40 minutes longer.
• Remove cakes from oven, run a knife around edges of the pans and turn upside down on a cake rack. Leave to cool. When cakes are thoroughly cool, wrap well in cheesecloth and pour liquor on top, bottom and sides until cheesecloth is soaked. Wrap each cake in several layers of aluminum foil to protect them from the air. They are ready to eat in two to three weeks, although the longer they're kept the better they are. Open every few weeks and add more liquor if cheesecloth seems dry.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 300°. Combine fruit and nuts. In another bowl, cream shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine flour, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture and mix well. Pour over fruit and nuts; stir to coat. , Transfer to a greased and floured 10-in. tube pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 2 hours. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Wrap tightly and store in a cool place. Bring to room temperature before serving; slice with a serrated knife.

Steps:

• The night before you cook this place all the fruit fruit peel and nuts into a bowl and soak for 12 hours in the brandy and orange juice; Stir every time you go into the kitchen!
• pre-heat oven to 275ºF/140ºC.
• Grease and line with greaseproof paper an 8 inch/20cm round cake tin.
• Sift the flour salt and spices into a large mixing bowl.
• In a separate bowl cream the butter and sugar together until the mixtures fluffy.
• Beat the eggs and add them a little at a time.
• Fold in the flour and spices.
• Stir in the fruit that has been soaking along with any excess liquid.
• Mix in the treacle.
• Spoon into the cake tin and spread out evenly.
• Cover the cake with a double square of greaseproof paper with a small hole in the top.
• Bake the cake on the lower shelf for 4& 1/4- 3/4 hours.
• When the cake is cold wrap in double greaseproof paper and store in an airtight tin.
• Feed the cake every two days for the first 2 weeks with a spoonful of brandy and/or orange juice and/or glacè cherry syrup.
• First poke little holes in the cake with a knitting needle or a skewer.
• Come Christmas you will have a very very rich fruit cake.
• Use royal icing to ice it or almond paste and royal icing, I don't like almond paste!

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325°. In a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into creamed mixture. Stir in remaining ingredients., Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto greased baking sheets. Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Store in an airtight container. (Cookies are best after a few days.)