Christmas Fruitcake Recipe

I made my Christmas Fruitcake this morning. They are in the oven as I write this - they take about three hours to bake.  The end product is six 4 inch by 7 inch mini-loaf pans. Here's the recipe:

Christmas White Fruitcake with Homemade Candied Fruit

12 oz blanched almonds chopped

2 cups of candied red cherries

Candied orange peel from four medium navel oranges, chopped

Candied lemon peel from two large lemons, chopped

2 Cups candied pineapple

8 oz golden raisins

1/2 cup flour



Combine all the candied fruits, the almonds and the raisins in a large open bowl along with a 1/2 cup of flour. I chopped the almonds and the candied orange and lemon peel. I left the cherries and the pineapple whole.  Mix all the fruit and nuts together to coat the fruit with the flour. I used my hands. Set aside.

2 1/4 sticks butter

1 1/2 cups of sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 large eggs

1/2 cup whole milk

1/4 cup cream sherry

1 teaspoon almond extract

2 1/2 cups sifted all purpose flour

Sherry or Brandy for baked cakes

Make the white cake batter. In an electric stand mixer cream 2 1/4 sticks of butter. I used salted because I don't like to keep two kinds of butter in the house - too expensive.  Next I added  1 1/2 cups of sugar, a 1/2 cup at a time and beat for five minutes on high, stopping the mixer halfway through and scraping down the sides. 

When the butter and sugar mixture was light and fluffy I added 1/4 teaspoon of salt and then slowly beat in four eggs, one egg at a time. I broke each egg into a bowl and poured the egg into the mixture so I wouldn't have to worry about bits of egg shell getting in the batter. I used my fresh pasture raised eggs which turned the batter a bright yellow color.

Mix a 1/2 cup of milk with 1/4 cup cream sherry and a teaspoon of almond extract.  Sift flour into measuring cups, measuring 2  1/2 cups of sifted flour. This is important. Don't just spoon the flour into cups and think its OK. Flour changes volume when sifted. So, sift the flour directly into the measuring cups. I put the flour in a separate bowl so I could add it a little at a time into the batter.

With the mixer running on low begin adding a fourth of the flour then alternate with one third or the milk mixture, ending with the flour. Beat until all is well combined, a couple of minutes.

Pour the batter over the fruit mixture and using a large wooden spoon, combine the fruit and batter until it is all well mixed.  Distribute the batter among six mini loaf pans and bake in a 275 degree oven for three hours or until a tooth pick inserted in the middle of a cake comes out clean. Check cakes at two hours and turn them in the oven.  Ovens vary and cake pans vary so three hours may be too long.

After cakes cool wrap them in several layers of cheese cloth or an old linen tea towel soaked in sherry or brandy. Put the cakes in air tight containers and store in a cool place (not a refrigerator) for at least four weeks. Once a week pour a little more sherry or brandy over the cakes.  Serve with hot tea for a traditional Christmas treat.

Note:  For years we made this fruit cake with the candied fruit you buy at the grocery and we loved it. So don't think you have to candy your own. It's just that the cake is so incredibly much better with home candied fruit.