Fruit Cake Recipe For Christmas

Serve a holiday dessert tradition to family and guests by following this fruit cake recipe for Christmas. Fruit cake contains a long grocery list of ingredients and must be aged for weeks before serving but is well worth the effort.

To make a fruit cake recipe for Christmas, you will need:

• 16 oz. golden raisins
• 16 oz. raisins
• 16 oz. currants
• 16 oz. glace cherries, chopped
• 16 oz. dates, pitted and chopped
• ¼ cup honey
• ½ cup brandy
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar, tightly packed
• 5 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 oranges, zest
• 2 lemons, zest
• 2 ½ cups multi-purpose flour
• ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp. ground ginger
• ½ tsp. ground nutmeg
• ½ tsp. salt
• 1 cup dark rum
• Waxed paper
• Cheesecloth

1. Day 1, prepare ingredients. Chop the Glace Cherries and Dates. Make lemon and orange zest, cover, and refrigerate. Measure out the golden raisins, dark raisins and currants. Set all fruit ingredients aside in separate dishes. Combine all fruit (excluding zest) ingredients with honey and brandy in a large bowl. Cover the bowl and set aside overnight.
2. Day 2. Remove the butter from the refrigerator and place in a bowl to soften. Remove zest from the refrigerator until room temperature. the soft butter Cream (stir with a wooden spoon) until smooth, add sugar, and mix until creamy and smooth.
3. Beat 5 eggs in a separate bowl. Add vanilla, orange and lemon zest and mix thoroughly. Add egg mixture to the fruit mixture slowly and blend thoroughly. Add the butter and sugar mixture and mix thoroughly. This step combines the zest, egg, and butter mixtures together.
4. Sift together flour, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. If a sifter is not available, measure out the flour, salt, and spices together in a separate bowl and mix thoroughly. Slowly mix the flour and spice mixture with the rest of the mixed ingredients until blended.
5. Grease 8 ½ inch round pan that is at least 3 inches deep. After greasing, line the pan with waxed paper to prevent sticking. Pour the fruit cake batter into the pan and bake in a preheated oven at 275 degrees for 2 ½ hours. Remove the cake from the oven and place the pan on a cooling rack.  Pour ½ cup dark rum over the top of the fruit cake. Let the cake cool to room temperature.
6. Aging the Christmas fruit cake. Wrap the pan containing the Christmas fruit cake in aluminum foil overnight. Remove the Christmas fruit cake from the pan the next day. Wrap the fruit cake in cheesecloth then in foil. Place the fruit cake in a cool dark place. After two weeks, open the cake and pour ¼ cup dark rum over the top. Rewrap and age for another two weeks before adding more rum. After a minimum of aging for a month the Christmas fruit cake is ready to serve.

Tips/Warnings: Use a fine grater to grate the peel of the oranges and lemons to create zest. After aging, which can be done for up to 2 months, the Christmas fruit cake can be easily frozen. While aging the Christmas fruit cake, do not place it where it will come in contact with direct sunlight.