FAIR VIEW

I first made Dark Fruitcake in 1976 when I moved off campus in college. My mom gave me the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book as a house warming gift and I decided to try out this recipe. It was quite the winner and quickly became a family tradition! Today was a beautiful day to bake!

The first photo is of all the dry ingredients mixed together, including the sifted four, baking powder, spices, candied fruits and peels, nuts, raisins and dates. Also shown are the melted Plugrá butter and the molasses. I had to use the biggest pot we owned, a spaghetti pot, because the recipe makes so much!

The next photo is of the four eggs beaten foamy with the cup and three quarters of dark brown sugar beaten in. Did I mention that this recipe is a dieter’s delight? Still to be added are the orange juice and molasses. The next two photos show the dry ingredients and two views of Sean’s antique sifter that I used for this recipe.

Now the labor intensive part comes. The wet ingredients are poured over the dry ones and have to be mixed thoroughly. No one wants to bite into a fruit cake and find a pocket of flour!

Then in photo #7, the loaves are ready for the oven. Hooray! Bake at 300° F [149° C] for 2 hours (depending on the size of the loaf tin). Then you end up with photo #8! The finished product!

But wait, there is more! These fruitcake loaves need to be prepared 3-4 weeks in advance because they must be soaked in some sort of *cough* alcohol containing beverage, such as wine. I go straight for the good stuff, apricot brandy! You betcha!

I wrap each loaf individually in two unused, laundered Handi Wipes, put them back into their loaf pans and douse them with apricot brandy. I then cover them with tinfoil and they go into my vegetable crisper in the fridge until I am ready to give them as gifts. So for a month my fridge will smell like a drunk died in there. Could be worse!

That put me in the holiday spirit! Who wants fruitcake???

Remember hearing this song?

We wish you a Merry Christmas;
We wish you a Merry Christmas;
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Good tidings we bring to you and your kin;
Good tidings for Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Oh, bring us a figgy pudding;
Oh, bring us a figgy pudding;
Oh, bring us a figgy pudding and a cup of good cheer

We won’t go until we get some;
We won’t go until we get some;
We won’t go until we get some, so bring some out here

Did you ever wonder what figgy pudding was? I did. So I googled it and found this recipe:

Traditional Figgy Pudding
16 oz. dried Calimyrna figs (the light brown ones, not the black ones)
1 3/4 cup whole milk
1 1/2 cup AP flour
1 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
3 eggs
1/2 cup (1 stick) melted butter
1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
1 tablespoon grated orange peel

Hard Sauce:
1 1/2 cup confectioner’s (powdered) sugar
1/2 cup butter (1 stick) softened
2 tablespoons brandy
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Grease a 2 1/12 quart bundt pan with spray or butter.

Cut stems from figs and discard. Cut figs into 1/4″ dice

In a a medium saucepan, heat milk and figs over medium-low heat but do NOT bring to a boil. Cook for 10-15 minutes stirring occasionally. The figs will perfume the milk and the milk will soften the figs.

The mixture may look curdled, but don’t worry.

In a medium bowl (not your mixer’s bowl, we’ll use that next), mix flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt.

In your mixers bowl, beat eggs one minute on high. Reduce speed to low and add butter, bread crumbs, orange peel, and warm fig mixture.

Slowly incorporate flour mixture. Beat until just blended.

Pour/spoon the mix into the greased bundt pan. If using an intricate mold/pan, push mix deep into all crevices so it will take the shape when baked. Level top as much as possible. Giving the pan a half twist back and forth will sometimes help the mix find a nice level surface.

Cover the mold with a piece of aluminum foil greased on one side, greased side down.

Place the mold in a roasting pan and place on oven rack. fIll with hot tap water 2 inches up the side of the mold.

Bake for 2 hours or until the pudding is firm and it is pulling away from the side of the bundt pan.

Now, make the sauce. With a mixer, mix all the sauce ingredients together until creamy.

Remove the pudding from the water bath. Remove the foil and cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before unmolding. Invert bundt pan onto a serving plate/cake stand and remove mold. It should come away easily.

Serve warm with sauce. The sauce is more like frosting at room temperature, but if you heat it a bit, it will melt. I liked it more frosting-like.

Since I am going to Mom’s for Christmas, I decided to bring some figgy pudding with me to treat my family. But I have never made it before, so I needed a dry run. I baked it last night for a Christmas party at a friend’s house and it was a big hit! Everybody loved it!

I very much recommend making figgy pudding for the holidays, but if you do, don’t go until you get some!