Grandma Storey’s Christmas Cake

My grandmother was a great cook and baker, excelling during the holidays. Christmas turkeys were so large that, at least on one occasion, her oven door would not close on the roast. Special desserts such as fruitcakes and carrot puddings were made in abundance in preparation for Christmas. 

My sister Sylvia is also a great cook and baker. She frequently invents her own recipes, but in this case merely tweaked our grandmother's recipe, which in its original form made an enormous number of cakes. 

Despite the changes made to the original recipe, the cakes turned out perfectly. As my sister the innovator said, "Grandma’s recipe said to use more or less of the dried fruits and nuts to suit your taste. That's my kind of recipe". 

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup butter (melted, then cooled somewhat))
• 4 medium eggs
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup molasses 
• 1 cup orange juice 
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 3 cups flour (1/2 cup of which is used to dust the fruit)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 cup chopped candied ginger 
• Butter for parchment paper
• Rum for soaking cheesecloth to wrap the cakes

1 1/2 cups each:

• Chopped pitted dates
• Raisins 
• Currants
• Pecans (or walnuts)

1 cup each:

• Glacé cherries
• Mixed Peel 
• Glacé pineapple

Methods:

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F.

Mix the fruits and nuts together in a large bowl and toss with  1/2 cup flour. Sift together dry ingredients and spices.

Mix together the melted butter, sugar, molasses, eggs, vanilla, and orange juice. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients until well-combined, then stir in all of the fruit and nut mixture until everything is completely coated with batter. This is a fruit-heavy, dense batter. 

Spoon the batter into three loaf pans that have been lined with buttered parchment paper. Place a shallow pan of water on the oven rack below the cakes.

Bake for 1 1/2 hours or until done. ( A toothpick inserted into the cake, comes out clean)

Cool. Wrap in rum-soaked cheesecloth and refrigerate.

The original recipe. It makes 6 cakes!

Fruitcake ...It's time has come

One might well wonder at the folly of  baking fruitcake for Christmas on one of the warmest September days recorded in modern times. It's because I live in an air conditioned house. Plus, this is a cake that improves with age. 

There are some who make fun of fruitcake. I say, there's no accounting for taste.

Ingredients:

• 3 ½ cups of raisins
• 3 ½ cups of dried currants
• Place the raisins and currants in a bowl and cover them with boiling water. Leave until the water is tepid.
• 1 cup of chopped candied orange peel
• 1 cup of chopped candied citrus peel
• 3 cups flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon grated nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 ½ cups of unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 ¾ cups of brown sugar
• 6 eggs
• 3 tablespoons brandy or rum or port, depending on your preference

Methods:
Heat your oven to 300º F. Then grease a 9 ″ round baking pan well and line it with parchment paper.

This is a big cake so your baking pan needs to be at least 3 inches deep. (Alternatively, you can use several smaller pans.)

Sift the flour with the salt, nutmeg and allspice in a medium-sized bowl. Cream the butter and sugar in a very large bowl and add the eggs one by one, beating well after each addition. Stir the flour mixture into the eggs/butter/sugar in 2 or 3 batches, followed by the alcohol and drained fruit. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top of the cake, making a slight hollow in the centre to ensure the top of the cake will be flat after baking. Bake for 2 to 3 hours depending on the size of the pans you use, or until the cake tests done.

Wrap the cooled cakes in several layers of cheesecloth soaked in your favourite tipple. Then wrap again tightly in plastic wrap before popping the cake(s) in the back of your refrigerator, until you feel the need to soak the cheesecloth again. Remove the cheesecloth at holiday time and cover the cakes with a thick layer of marzipan and royal icing. Groan with delight.