Christmas fruitcake - one hundred year old family recipe - bite (2024)

UPDATE: It’s time to start your Fruitcake so that it’s ready for the holidays. I shared this Fruitcake recipe five years ago but it continues to be one of my most popular posts. If you’ve never liked fruitcake in the past, this recipe will change your mind. If you make it in the next few days, it will be ready for Christmas dinner. XO

It snowed. We’ve gone from gardening in shirtsleeves to frantically trying to find matching winter gloves in one day! The upside; it’s time to make my Christmas fruitcake.

I heard your gasp. “Christmas is almost two months away. Why are you making fruitcake now?”

Simple. Fruitcake needs time to mellow. The mellowing process is called ripening. Fruitcake needs at least one month to ripen. I prefer to give my fruitcake two months.

Growing up, fruitcake was the only holiday sweet that I’d leave on the party platter. It often looked dry and, on the rare occasion when I did take a nibble, I found the taste bitter. The first Christmas that I spent with Ralph, he kept on about his mother’s fruitcake for weeks. When Boxing Day rolled around, all of the Hootons gathered at the family homestead for their annual holiday get-together. The dining room table was literally groaning with desserts. Gingerbread men, shortbread cookies, jam-jams, mincemeat tartlets, caramel corn, cherry cheesecake and, in the middle of all that deliciousness, the dreaded fruitcake.The funny thing was it didn’t look like any fruitcake that I’d ever seen. There was no crusty frosting or almond paste on the outside. The cake part looked dark, rich and moist and the fruit was actually glistening.

True to his word, when the tea was served, Ralph presented me with a slicein front of his mom.I’m going to be honest; had I not liked it, I would have lied through my teeth. There was no way, with all of his family watching, that I was going to gag on their famous Christmas fruitcake!

I picked up a small piece and quickly popped it in my mouth. I figured I’d get it over with in one gulp.I know you know where this is going…The flavour and texture were off the charts! The fruitcake tasted exactly as it looked: just enough moist cake to hold together the luscious fruit.

It turns out, this recipe has been in Ralph’s family for over one hundred years. His great-grandmother, Grammy Price, taught his mom to make it when she was a little girl. Gram was a teetotaler so Ralph’s mom made a few adjustments to the original recipe. I asked her if her grandmother noticed the difference.

“She never said, but she always asked for a second slice…”

For years, Ralph’s mom gave us a whole fruitcake just before the holidays. She’s passed on her grandmother’s fruitcake steamer to me. It’s one of my most cherished gifts. Now, I have the honour and privilege to make fruitcake for her.

So here we go – Christmas 2014.The girls are coming home. They’ve asked to celebrate Coen’sfirst Christmas at the farm so I have a lot of work to do,starting with Nanny Hooton’s Christmas Fruitcake.

NANNY HOOTON’S FRUITCAKE

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THE FRUIT

2 lbs red cherries
2 lbs green cherries
2 lbs seeded raisins, separated
2 lbs pitted dates
2 lbs mixed fruit
1 lb pecans
½ – 750 ml bottle inexpensive Port

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THE STEPS:

  • Place all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and toss well.
  • Cover with a tea towel and leave to soak over night.

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THE CAKE BATTER

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cloves
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 ½ cup brown sugar
2/3 cup butter – the original recipe calls for vegetable shortening
8 eggs
1 cup fancy molasses
1 cup cold tea

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THE STEPS:

  • Grease your pans then line them with paper [waxed or parchment] then grease the paper – set aside.I used 2 – 6″ and 2 – 8″ round pans. The cook time stays the same because all of the pans were 2″ deep.

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  • Stir together flour, baking powder, salt, ginger, cloves and cinnamon – set aside.
  • In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and brown sugar until combined.
  • Beat in eggs, one at a time, until well incorporated.

Christmas fruitcake - one hundred year old family recipe - bite (9)

  • Beat in molasses and cold tea.
  • Fold in flour mixture until completely blended.
  • Add soaked fruit including any Port sitting in the bottom of the bowl. I use my hands because the batter is too heavy for a spoon to handle.

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  • Pour the batter into the prepared pans, full to the top, cover and steam for 2 hours. If you don’t have a fruitcake steamer, place a rack, brick or upside down cake pan on the bottom of a deep stock pot. Fill the stock pot with enough water to reach ¼ of the way up the fruitcake pan.
  • Preheat oven to 300*F

  • Place steamed fruitcake in preheated oven for 1 hour.
  • Remove fruitcake from oven to a cooling rack for 12 hours [TWELVE]

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  • Wrap them in cheesecloth. Sprinkle liberally with Port and seal the cakes in plastic wrap or in plastic storage bags. Once a week, brush the cakes with more Port.

Christmas fruitcake - one hundred year old family recipe - bite (13)

THE LOVE: Make sure the bowl you’re using to mix the fruit with the cake batter is big enough. You don’t want it slopping all over your counter!

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Thanks for reading.

Christmas fruitcake - one hundred year old family recipe - bite (15)

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Christmas Fruitcake

Rating: 3.2/5

( 115 voted )

Serves: 20 Prep Time: Cooking Time: Nutrition facts:200 calories20 grams fat

Ingredients

2 lbs red cherries
2 lbs green cherries
2 lbs seeded raisins, separated
2 lbs pitted dates
2 lbs mixed fruit
1 lb pecans
½ - 750 ml bottle inexpensive Port4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cloves
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 ½ cup brown sugar
2/3 cup butter - the original recipe calls for vegetable shortening
8 eggs
1 cup fancy molasses
1 cup cold tea

Instructions

  1. Place all of the dried fruit, nuts and port nuts in a large mixing bowl and toss well.
  2. Cover with a tea towel and leave to soak over night.
  3. The next morning, grease your pans then line them with paper [waxed or parchment] then grease the paper - set aside. I used 2 - 6" and 2 - 8" round pans. The cook time stays the same because all of the pans were 2" deep.
  4. Stir together flour, baking powder, salt, ginger, cloves and cinnamon - set aside.
  5. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and brown sugar until combined.
  6. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until well incorporated.
  7. Beat in molasses and cold tea.
  8. Fold in flour mixture until completely blended.
  9. Add soaked fruit including any Port sitting in the bottom of the bowl. I use my hands because the batter is too heavy for a spoon to handle.
  10. Pour the batter into the prepared pans, full to the top, cover and steam for 2 hours. If you don’t have a fruitcake steamer, place a rack, brick or upside down cake pan on the bottom of a deep stock pot. Fill the stock pot with enough water to reach ¼ of the way up the fruitcake pan.
  11. Preheat oven to 300*F
  12. Place steamed fruitcake in preheated oven for 1 hour.
  13. Remove fruitcake from oven to a cooling rack for 12 hours.
  14. Wrap the fruitcakes in cheesecloth. Sprinkle liberally with Port and seal the cakes in plastic wrap or in plastic storage bags. Once a week, brush the cakes with more Port.

Notes

THE LOVE: Make sure the bowl you’re using to mix the fruit with the cake batter is big enough. You don’t want it slopping all over your counter!

British dessertsChristmas cakesclassic Christmas dessertsdark fruitcakefruitcake recipesold fashion Christmas cake recipesVictorian Christmas desserts

Christmas fruitcake - one hundred year old family recipe - bite (2024)

FAQs

Can you eat 10 year old fruitcake? ›

And you could theoretically still eat these century-old cakes without harm—if you can get past the nauseating, rancid smell. The secret behind the long shelf life of the beloved (or sometimes despised) holiday treat lies in the ingredients and preparation.

What two ingredients help fruitcake last longer? ›

Fruitcake lasts longer than most other cakes because it is filled with nuts and candied fruit. It will last even longer if you sprinkle it with a spirit like brandy.

What is the oldest fruitcake in the world? ›

Fidelia Ford

The fruitcake in question was baked in Tecumseh, MI by the loving matriarch of the Ford family, Fidelia, back in 1878.

Why was fruitcake outlawed? ›

At first, the cakes were mainly filled with nuts. When sugar became more widely available, candied preserved fruits were added. The addition of sugar made the dessert so “sinfully rich” that the church briefly banned fruitcake in the 1700s.

Can fruit cake last 100 years? ›

100 years. Conservators working in Cape Adare, Antarctica, recently found a tin containing a fruitcake that is thought to date back to the Terra Nova expedition of 1910–13. The cake is Huntley & Palmer's brand, which is known to have been taken by Scott on his expeditions.

Can fruitcake last 25 years? ›

It lasts longer than you think

According to Mental Floss, fruitcake has quite the shelf life. The tasty, holiday treat can age 25 years and still be enjoyed, as long as it's stored in an airtight container.

How old was the fruitcake lady when she died? ›

Marie Rudisill died in Hudson, Florida, on November 3, 2006, at the age of 95, just before the publication date of her last book, Ask the Fruitcake Lady: Everything You Would Already Know If You Had Any Sense, on November 7.

What is the fruitcake scandal? ›

Jenkins, a low-level employee at the city's famed fruitcake company, the Collin Street Bakery, embezzled $17 million from 2004 to 2013, spending the money on cars, trips, watches, and jewelry—all so that he could keep up appearances with the upper crust of his town of 24,000.

What city is the fruitcake capital of the world? ›

Claxton is nicknamed the "Fruit Cake Capital of the World" due to the number of fruitcakes that is produced each year. In addition, the city is home to some of the largest beekeeping and poultry industries in the state.

What is the derogatory meaning of fruitcake? ›

If you refer to someone as a fruitcake, you mean that they are crazy or that their behavior is very strange. [informal, disapproval]

Why do people hate fruit cakes? ›

With overbaking, the outcome causes the cake to be dry and hard and have a flat or bitter taste. In addition, other people don't like fruitcakes due to the unnaturally colored fruit that is sometimes used in mass-produced fruitcakes.

Is fruitcake healthy for you? ›

We might like to pretend, based on its name, that fruitcake is a reasonably healthy sweet option, however this is not the case. Fruitcake tends to have high butter, sugar and syrup content, making it high in both fat and calorie content. The same goes for Panettone- the Italian bread that has become a holiday favorite.

Does fruit cake taste better with age? ›

Yes, we said patience. Just like a fine wine, the flavors of your Collin Street fruitcake only get better with time.

Can you eat an 11 year old wedding cake? ›

If it has been continuously frozen, then there would be little chance of decay. Even chemical reactions would be inhibited at freezer temperatures. Modern Frost-free freezers, however, will tend to dry out many substances though. If in doubt, taste a little, then wait a few days before eating the rest.

Can I eat my wedding cake after a year? ›

How Long Can You Freeze Your Wedding Cake? According to Lauren, your frozen week should be enjoyed by the one-year mark. "I would eat it on the-year anniversary when it's meant to be eaten, or at the year-and-a-half mark at the latest," she says.

Can you eat a 2 year old frozen cake? ›

Eating a piece of old frozen cake won't kill you. It may not taste good but it certainly won't kill you.

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