Japanese Fruitcake
Cake:
- 3 cups sifted cake flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, slightly softened
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup seedless raisins or dried currants (these are actually tiny Zante raisins)
- 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
- ½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1½ cups fresh orange juice
- 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
- Finely grated zest of 1 large orange
- Finely grated zest of 1 large lemon
- 2 cups sugar
- ¼ cup unsifted all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 cups freshly grated coconut or sweetened flaked coconut
Instructions:
This cake is perfect for birthday parties as well as for a picnic.
- For the cake: Preheat the oven to 350° F. Coat four 9-inch layer cake pans well with nonstick oil-and-flour baking spray and set aside.
- Sift the cake flour, baking powder, and salt onto a piece of wax paper and set aside also.
- Cream the butter, sugar, and vanilla in a large electric mixer bowl at moderate speed for 2 to 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat the eggs in one by one, then reduce the mixer speed to low and add the sifted dry ingredients alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry. Beat after each addition only enough to combine; overmixing will toughen the cake.
- Divide the batter in half. Quickly dredge the raisins and pecans in the all-purpose flour and fold into half of the batter along with the cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg.
- Spoon the yellow cake batter into two of the pans, dividing the total amount evenly, then the spiced batter into the remaining two pans, again dividing evenly.
- If possible, bake all four layers at the same time on the middle oven shelf for 20 to 25 minutes or until springy to the touch and a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. Otherwise, bake the two yellow layers, then the two spice. Cool the baked layers in the upright pans on wire racks for 15 minutes, then invert on the racks and cool to room temperature.
- Meanwhile, prepare the filling: Combine all ingredients but the coconut in a large, heavy, nonreactive saucepan, set over moderately high heat, and cook, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes or until thickened and smooth. Reduce the heat to low and simmer uncovered, stirring now and then, for 10 minutes. Add the coconut and cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 20 to 25 minutes or until the consistency of marmalade.
- To assemble the cake: Center a spice layer on a large round plate and spread generously with the filling. Top with a yellow layer, press firmly into place, and spread with more filling. Repeat—spice layer, yellow layer—each time pressing the new layer firmly into the one underneath and spreading with filling; don’t be stingy. The last of the filling goes on top of the cake, not on the sides, although if some of it dribbles down the sides, so much the better.
- Let the cake stand for at least 24 hours before cutting; this gives the filling time to seep into the cake and firm up a bit.