The Food Corner

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by Paul Cormier, Salamanders of Kemptville

Every family appears to have its own recipe for Fruit Cake. Of course, this is the season where fruit cake is particularly welcome. However, we seem to forget all about this delicious dessert or snack as soon as the festive season has flown. In our family, we keep right on partaking till Easter rolls around. On a Sunday afternoon with a cup of tea, nothing goes down nicer. Some folks even like to have a piece of auld cheddar alongside. So, if you haven’t put up your Fruit Cake yet, give this recipe a whirl!

White Fruit Cake

Ingredients:
1 pound of raisins
½ pound of maraschino cherries, drained, or glace cherries, cut in half, half red, half green
¾ pound of diced glace pineapple in red, green and yellow
½ pound of diced mixed peel or all citron, if preferred
½ cup of orange juice
4 tablespoons of white rum
1 ½ cup of fine granulated sugar or fruit sugar and 1 cup of butter
5 eggs
1 cup of enriched cake flour
2 teaspoons salt
½ cup buttermilk
¾ cup all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
½ pound of sliced almonds

Preparation:

On the night before the cake is being baked, prepare fruit, add liquid and let stand overnight, stirring a couple of times to mix liquid into fruit.

Next day, make batter by creaming sugar and butter well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after adding each egg. Add cake flour, salt and buttermilk. Beat until flour disappears.

Add all-purpose flour to the fruit mixture, which has been standing overnight. Mix nuts into the fruit mixture. Then, add the batter. Mix well. Pour into a greased springform pan. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 325 degrees for 3 or so hours. Place a pan of water in the oven while the cake is baking to maintain humidity. If the top of the cake browns too rapidly, lower the heat or cover with a piece of aluminum foil. Check that your cake is done by inserting a toothpick to see if it comes out clean.

Once out of the oven, let cool for several hours, then wrap in cheese cloth. Baste the cake right over the cheese cloth – generously – with white rum and wrap first in saran and then, aluminium foil until ready to serve. Periodically, unwrap and re-baste with the rum.

Kindly let me know if you tried this recipe and how it turned out.

I’m at pcormier@ranaprocess.com.

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