Fruitcake has a reputation as an undesirable, comical holiday gift, more suitable as ammunition for a trebuchet than something to eat. To me, this is the ideal food to cook at home – however it turns out, it’ll certainly turn out better than the commercial alternative.
My current favorite fruitcake recipe is based on the Good Eats fruitcake episode, substituting in edible ingredients for the things I can’t eat – honey for sugar and almond meal for flour. Note that while there are some shortcuts you can use, the best final product takes at least a day or so. I guess you could go buy one if that’s a problem. Along the same line of reasoning, I’d also suggest not bothering if you’re not willing to invest in good ingredients. I like all organic, but at least take a look at and taste your fruits and nuts – if they’re not good the cake won’t be any good either.
Ingredients
- 2 cups roughly diced dried fruit
- 1 cup dark rum
- zest of an orange
- 4 cloves
- 6 allspice berries
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- 1 cup apple juice
- 1 stick butter
- 1 cup honey
- 1/2 to 1 cup pecans (walnuts work well too)
- 1 3/4 cups almond meal
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 eggs
- more rum
24 hours before you intend to bake, combine the rum, fruit, and zest. Chop up the fruit roughly. I like apricots, figs, raisins, and cherries – pretty much any dried fruit will work. I especially like the figs because of the crunchy seeds, which remind me of tobiko on sushi. I like to peel the zest with a serrated veggie peeler so I can later remove it, but you could grate or chop it fine and leave it in – it’s a question of texture. I think rum is traditional, but you could use any liquor you like. Combine the booze, fruit, and zest in a sealable container and set on the counter. Shake it around now and then.
24 hours or so later, pour that mixture into a heavy-bottomed pot with a lid. Add the cup of juice, honey, and butter and turn the heat to medium. While it’s heating, smash or grind up the cloves and allspice and add them, the cinnamon, and ginger. Simmer that mixture a while with the lid on. It should get soupy looking and smell really good.
Meanwhile, toast your pecans. Use more or fewer pecans, depending on what you like. You could probably even use some other nut, such as walnuts or maybe slivered almonds. Toast your nuts for about 10 minutes at 300 degrees F. Watch them closely – undertoasted is okay but overtoasted goes in the compost. Set aside when they’re done.
Take the fruit off the heat when you’re confident the flavors have melded, at least 10 minutes of simmering. This is when I remove the zest peels, burning my fingers each and every time. Butter some nonstick pans. This makes about 3 small rounds, a couple of loaves, or a bunch of muffins. I make two rounds and some muffins. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F, adding a pan of water to the lower rack – the steam will make your fruitcake happier but means you need to watch out when opening the oven door. Combine your dry ingredients – almond meal, salt, and baking soda. When your fruit mixture is cool, dump it into a bowl and stir in the dry stuff. Mix in the eggs one at a time, then fold in your nuts. Spoon into your pans and bake. Small round cakes take about an hour, muffins about 1/2 hour. Testing with a toothpick works. Be very careful opening the oven door due to the steam from the pan of water.
Let the fruitcakes cool fully on a rack before trying to get them out of their pans. Nonstick pans seem to release pretty reliably, and silicone muffin cups work perfectly. If you like the surface of the cake a bit drier you can bake them on the rack for a few minutes. This also makes the surface more absorbent if you’re planning to paint them with rum.
The fruitcakes can be served as they are, but if you want them to last longer and taste better, paint them with some rum a few times over the course of maybe a week.
A sliver of fruitcake is delicious plain, but combining that sliver with some sautéed bananas and whipped crème fraîche makes a perfect dessert.
Non-alcoholic version: If you’re avoiding alcohol for one reason or another, you might be wondering if it’s possible to do this recipe without the rum. Of course! Try soaking the dried fruit in apple juice instead of the rum. My cakes turned out darker – the juice probably made the mix sweeter, resulting in faster browning. I didn’t paint mine with anything later, but a mixture of warm honey and apple juice might be good. The rum probably has some preservative value, so you might want to eat your non-alcoholic cakes sooner.
