Most Americans dislike fruitcake, having had only the commercial versions which are awful. Dry, tasteless–if that’s all there were, I’d say yes, leave that out of your cuisine.
But many years ago, I happened across a fruitcake recipe in Craig Claireborne’s The New York Times Cookbook (which was a mainstay of my kitchen for years) and I thought I’d try it.
It was utterly fantastic. You soaked the fruit in rum for at least 24 hours before baking, then stored the cakes for a minimum of four weeks, sprinkling them with rum twice a week. Let me tell you, nothing like the commercial stuff! My kids loved them. They used to bring back loaves to school, since it was a perfectly legitimate way to bring alcohol into the dorm. They traded slices to their friends for favors (including, I understand, dates). Under the laws at that time, it was probably illegal to drive with an opened loaf in the car.
Then, when we moved here, The New York Times Cookbook was among those books that somehow didn’t make it with us. And I didn’t think fruitcake was something that was eaten in the tropics, anyway.
It most certainly is, especially in the Caribbean. And last year, we bought fruitcake at Super Baru, I believe–and discovered that it was good. Clearly, Panamanians enjoy fruitcake as well.
So this year, I decided to bake some again. I couldn’t find Clairborne’s recipe but got something very close to it online. Getting the fruits was easy–the stores have had plentiful supplies for at least two weeks, about the time they started putting out Christmas stuff. I soaked the fruits from Friday to Sunday, then yesterday baked two loaves. They are now wrapped, absorbing their first rum soaking (sprinkling doesn’t quite describe what I do), waiting until Wednesday, when I ‘sprinkle” again. Fortunately rum is cheap here.
What interested me was the Caribbean tradition. For many cooks there, fruitcake means soaking the fruits in rum for an entire year! Mary, who thinks all of this is a fine idea, is making noises like we should do the same now. Sure–and where are we going to put 5 lbs of rummy fruit for a year? No idea.
I used to bake fruitcake Thanksgiving weekend, but this year I’m a week ahead. since traditionally we never ate the fruitcake until Christmas Eve, that gives it 5 weeks to brood in their cups. We figure that one loaf will go to the Espinosas as a Christmas present, which is the perfect sort of gift in Panamá. The other we’ll nurse for as long as we can.
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dear joyce,
what you are not making more in this next week?
you go mary! (soaking fruit for a year)
thank you
ellen munday
Oh, GREAT, Ellen, that’s all I need–encouraging Mary! *groan*
Now I’ll NEVER hear the end of it!
Joyce
Hi Joyce–you’ve inspired me! I’ve never baked a fruitcake before; spoiled by my Welsh mother-in-law who would make rum-soaked cake for me. Do you care to share the recipe link?
Regards
Sam
Hi, Sam!
Here’s the link:
http://freerangelibrarian.com/2008/11/25/its-not-too-late-to-bake-fruitcake/
A few things different:
1) recipe calls for mace–unobtainable as far as I know in David–no biggie.
2) calls for white and brown sugar–I used just the turbinado brown–too lazy to break up panela for dark brown
3) I don’t grease my pans. A number of recipes (that were too fussy for me), including what I remember of Clairborne, ask you to line your pans with waxed paper, which is what I did. It works like a charm. When removing he loaves from the pans, I just lifted them out by means of the waxed paper.
4) I did put the pans in a shallow pan of water. Lots of people, including Clairborne, recommend this.
5) I wrapped my loaves far more than she suggests. I “sprinkled” them with rum, let them stand so that the rum was absorbed, then wrapped them in very old, very soft dishtowels. Next came secure wrapping in waxed paper, and finally in aluminum foil to secure the other wrappers and provide an extra layer. The toweling might absorb a little moisture at first, but that’s not going to evaporate given the extra layers of wrapping. Some recipes I found even talk about sprinkling the cheesecloth with rum. I prefer to put it on the cakes directly. I’ll replace anything lost tomorrow–and then some!
6) she talks about putting them in a crock or deep kettle. Until we get into David and can buy a plastic box with secure lid, I have them in my roasting pan, complete with its cover, sitting in the oven.
This recipe is surprisingly little work, which is what I remember about the Clairborne recipe. Judging from teeny little snippets that came off the waxed paper, I would say it’s going to be a smash success.
Good luck with it!
Joyce