Heirloom Fruitcake
Fruits and Nuts:
- 7 cups shelled pecans
- 1 pound glacéed green cherries, each cherry quartered lengthwise (from stem to blossom end)
- 1 pound glacéed pineapple, cut into ½ × ¼ × ¼-inch rectangles
- 1 pound glacéed citron, cut into ¼-inch dice
- Two 15-ounce boxes golden seedless raisins (sultanas)
- One 15-ounce box dark seedless raisins
- 8 ounces pitted dates, cut into ¼-inch dice
- 8 ounces dried figs, stemmed and cut into ¼-inch dice
- 4 ounces glacéed lemon rind, cut into ¼-inch dice
- 4 ounces glacéed orange rind, cut into ¼-inch dice
- 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour (for dredging)
- 3¼ cups sifted all-purpose flour
- 1 scant tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1 scant tablespoon ground allspice
- 1 scant tablespoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 pound (4 sticks) butter, at room temperature
- 2 cups sugar
- 12 large eggs
- 5 glacéed red cherries, halved
- 20 small fan-shaped pieces of glacéed pineapple
- 40 perfect pecan halves (saved from the 7 cups above)
Instructions:
Making fruitcake is a two-day project. Day one is devoted to preparing the fruits and nuts, which are then covered overnight. Day two is for making and baking the fruitcakes, for decorating, and wrapping.
- Preheat the oven to 350° F. Lightly butter a 15½ × 10½ × 1-inch jelly-roll pan—a bright aluminum one—and set aside. Also butter the bottom of a 20 × 14 × 10-inch turkey roaster and set aside. Finally, butter ten 5 5/8 × 3 × 2-inch loaf pans and set aside.
- For the fruits and nuts: Reserve 40 perfect pecan halves for decorating the fruitcakes. Coarsely chop the rest, spread half of them in the jelly-roll pan, and bake on the middle oven shelf for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring once or twice, or until lightly toasted; do not overbrown. Transfer to an ungreased large roasting pan. Toast the remaining pecans the same way and add to the roasting pan.
- Add all of the prepared fruits to the pecans and toss well using your hands. Sprinkle the dredging flour evenly over all, then again mix thoroughly with your hands. It’s important that all fruits and nuts be lightly coated with flour.
- For the batter: Sift the flour, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and cloves onto a large piece of wax paper and set aside.
- Cream the butter in a large electric mixer bowl at medium speed for 1 to 1½ minutes or until light and fluffy. With the mixer running, add the sugar gradually, creaming all the while. Beat the eggs in one by one, then, with the mixer at low speed, add the sifted dry ingredients in three batches, beating only enough to combine. Do not overmix.
- Scoop the batter—it’s quite stiff—over the surface of the fruit and nut mixture, distributing evenly. Then, working in sections and using your hands, mix thoroughly until all fruits and nuts are well coated with the batter. Transfer the mixture to the turkey roaster, spreading to the edge.
- Bake uncovered in the lower third of the oven for 15 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven, close the oven door, and stir the mixture thoroughly, scooping it again and again from the edge to the center and from the bottom to the top. Repeat the process three times, baking in 15-minute increments, removing the pan from the oven, closing the door, and stirring the mixture as thoroughly as before. Total baking time: 1 hour. Stir the finished mixture well; it should be uniformly moist and crumbly.
- Turn the oven off and pull the shelf and the turkey roaster most of the way out of the oven. Now working fast, pack the hot crumbly mixture firmly into the prepared loaf pans in layers (this is a three-person job: one scooper, two packers). Ida packs in a layer about ¾ inch thick, then adds another and another until the pan is full.
- Once all pans have been packed with fruitcake, let stand right side up for an hour or two before unmolding.
- To unmold her fruitcakes, Ida Friday runs the pans briefly over an electric stovetop burner. Lacking her experience and afraid that I might burn the cakes, I used a simmering water bath instead—a half-filled 13 × 9 × 2-inch baking pan set over low heat. Here’s my technique: Working with one pan of fruitcake at a time, let each stand for 30 seconds in the simmering water, then invert at once onto your work surface.
- The instant a fruitcake is inverted, decorate the bottom while it is still warm. I center half a glacéed red cherry in each loaf, add a little glacéed pineapple fan above and below, then bracket the cherry with 4 pecan halves so that they form a large X. Of course, you can decorate the cakes any way you fancy, but keep the designs simple so that the cakes will slice easily.
- When the fruitcakes have cooled to room temperature, wrap snugly in plain plastic food wrap (not colored, which will obscure the decoration), pulling hard with each turn so that you compact the cakes and seal in the decorations.