Fruitcake

[magid]

Ozarque's fruitcake recipe inspired me to make my first fruitcake. [Her annotations are in square brackets.] (My annotations are in parentheses.)

1. Boil 1 box dark raisins and 1 box golden raisins (1 lb each, I believe) with 1 c water and 1.5 c brown sugar. Simmer 5 minutes, stirring sometimes. Take off the heat and stir in 1.5 c butter (I used margarine; it's much more convenient to make pareve cake.). Cover and let cool completely. (This will take many hours; overnight or during a workday is more convenient.)
   
2. When the mixture is cool, stir in 4 beaten eggs, 1 c dark rum, 1 T cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg, and a dash of orange extract (or 1 T orange juice).
   
3. Mix 6 c flour and 1 tsp baking soda together, then mix in the raisin mixture completely. (This makes a fairly stiff batter.)
   
4. Stir in 2 c nuts (I used all walnuts, because I didn't have any pecans around) and 1 c candied peel (I used candied organic peel I'd made a couple of weeks ago, a mix of oranges, lemons, limes, and tangelos.).
   
5. Bake in a greased Bundt pan or angelfood cake pan at 300 degrees for 2 hours or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the cake cool for 15 minutes before turning out onto a rack to finish cooling. [Don't try baking this in those disposable aluminum foil pans.] (Ozarque's note got me to buy a silicone Bundt pan, and even with all the raisins, the cake came out of the pan cleanly. I must get more of this stuff!)
   Note: This recipe makes two cakes. (I made them sequentially, having only the one pan, and both cakes came out fine.)
   
6. Put some rum in a cup or small bowl, and baste the cake all over with the rum. [I do this with a pastry brush; you can also do it with your fingertips, but it takes a lot longer. I don't recommend using a turkey-baster unless you have a separate one that you will forever use only for basting your fruitcakes.] (I used none of these methods: a folded paper towel worked pretty well.)
   
7. Soak a big piece of cheesecloth in rum, and wrap the cake in the cloth, covering it completely; then wrap in aluminum foil. (I ended up more dousing most of the cheesecloth put on the cake in rum, and using the rest of the rum that didn't soak in to baste the cake (with the aforementioned paper towel).)
   
8. Put the wrapped cake in a roughly airtight container and set it in a cool dark place for at least two weeks. [I use a plastic "cake carrier" for this. An ordinary cardboard box will serve. If you have a piece of furniture in a cool place with a big enough drawer, that's also fine; just set the wrapped cake in the closed drawer.] (First I put them in the back hallway (which is cooler), then in a box in my bedroom (which gets less light and is still pretty cool).)
   
9. Every three or four days, take off the aluminum foil and moisten the cheesecloth with rum again; then re-wrap with the foil and put the cake back where you're storing it. (This is where I didn't keep up with it so well; I waited a bit longer between basting.)

It hadn't been a full two weeks, but I served fruitcake for dessert on Shabbat, and it was definitely a good thing, if a little dry in the middle (which is probably my fault, not having been diligent in rum applications).

I have a lot more candied peel, so I suspect I'll try this again. Next time, however, there will be a couple of changes.

• The nuts will be both walnuts and pecans (other nuts don't sounds like they'd have the right texture, though I'm open to other suggestions).
• More peel, and I'll try to break up the pieces sticking together more completely.
• I'll replace some of the raisins (one box?) with other dried fruit, such as blueberries, cranberries (ideally unsweetened ones; anyone know if these exist commercially?), diced dried apricots or peaches. Possibly dates, but probably not figs.
• And I'll likely put in either some diced crystallized ginger, or ginger powder, or both.