Mimi’s Fruitcake

Mimi’s Fruitcake

  • Preparation 20 min
  • Cooking 2 h
  • Chilling 8 h
  • Makes 2 cakes
  • Végétarien
  • Végétalien
  • Sans lactose
  • Sans produits laitiers
  • Sans oeufs

Categories

Ingredients

    • 2 1/2 cups (625 ml) golden raisins
    • 2 1 /2 cups (625 ml) Sultana raisins
    • 1 cup (250 ml) red candied cherries
    • 1 cup (250 ml) green candied cherries
    • 1 1/4 cups (310 ml) candied citrus peel
    • 1 1/4 cups (310 ml) walnut pieces
    • 1 cup (250 ml) pecan pieces
    • 2 cups (500 ml) sugar
    • 3 tablespoons (45 ml) vegetable shortening
    • 1 tablespoon (15 ml) ground allspice
    • 1 tablespoon (15 ml) ground cinnamon
    • 1/4 teaspoon (1 ml) ground nutmeg
    • 2 cups (500 ml) water
    • 3 cups (750 ml) pastry flour
    • 1 teaspoon (5 ml) baking soda
    • 1 teaspoon (5 ml) salt
    • Cheesecloth
    • Rum, brandy or amaretto (optional)

Preparation

Note from Ricardo

You can eat the fruitcake on the same day that you bake it; it will be delicious. However, to allow the flavours to merry better, wait a few days or even weeks before serving. Your fruitcake can easily be prepared several weeks in advance. Well wrapped, it will keep for months in a cool place. Moreover, we once appreciated fruitcakes because they kept nuts and candied fruits for a long time.
If you don’t have any fruitcake left after Christmas and want to prepare more, buy your candied fruit and freeze them now: it's that time of year that you find a greater variety in supermarkets.
Fruitcake is a dessert popular here but also in the United States, where even a festival is dedicated to it. The Great Fruitcake Toss is held each year in Colorado in January. This festival is a great success and allows everyone to present his or her own recipe. In other western countries, this traditional holiday season cake takes a different look from ours: there is, of course, the famous British plum pudding, and in Italy, the delicious panettone. As for Spain, there is no candied fruitcake: however there exists a tradition to eat 12 grapes, one at each stroke when midnight strikes to mark the arrival of the New Year.
 

Personal Note