If you missed the boat for stirring up your fruitcake on the first Sunday of Advent, don’t let that deter you from giving this light fruitcake recipe a try. Fruitcakes are still tasty even when they don’t have several weeks to sit and age!
This year, the first Sunday of Advent found us traipsing about the White Mountains with a few of my siblings and my husband’s brother, who was visiting over Thanksgiving.
My thoughts were directed more toward mountains and leftover pumpkin pie than getting ready for Advent and Christmas.
It wasn’t until the next day that, surrounded by liturgical resources, cookbooks, and my file of Christmas recipes, I tackled Advent planning. And realized that I’d meant to make fruitcakes the day before. Oops.
Another week passed before I managed to collect all the necessary ingredients and actually bake the cakes.
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Light vs. Dark Fruitcake
I usually make dark fruitcakes: the kind that consist mainly of dried fruits and spices, with a little flour to hold them together. I steep them in either brandy or apple juice, and age them in the refrigerator for a few weeks.
My husband isn’t the biggest fan of those cakes, and since I probably shouldn’t consume an entire fruitcake by myself, I decided to use a light fruitcake recipe this year.
What’s the difference? Well, light fruitcakes have a lot more butter, flour, and sugar than their dark counterparts. They’re more like fruit-studded pound cakes than a dark, sticky brick of spicy fruit (more or less).
Also, dark fruitcakes are meant to be steeped in dark spirits and aged for weeks or months. Light fruitcakes use light spirits, or none at all. Some of them are meant to be eaten fresh, not aged.
They are both fruitcakes in their own right, but light ones are more like fruitCAKE, while dark ones are FRUITcake!
A Brief History of Fruitcake
Which version is older? It’s hard to say. Fruitcakes as we know them were likely first made in England in the Middle Ages, when trade routes to the East introduced exotic spices and dried fruits.
These would have been very expensive, so they were saved for special occasions like Christmas feasts.
According to Saveur, fruitcake was eaten in 18th century Europe around the winter solstice, to mark the annual nut harvest.
There have probably been nearly as many fruitcake recipes are there are fruitcake bakers. The amounts and types of fruits, nuts, and spices varied depending on what was available.
For example, light fruitcakes today often contain vanilla. This is a New World plant, so it would have been unknown to medieval cooks.
By contrast, dark fruitcakes often contain molasses or dark treacle (its British counterpart). Treacle has been around for a long time, but was mostly used for medicinal purposes up until the 17th century or thereabouts.
Irish Dundee cake is a close cousin of the English fruitcake. Other cultures have their own traditional cakes made with fruits and nuts; some are aged with spirits, while others are not.
The basis for my fruitcake
Anyway, that’s why I didn’t go with my usual dark fruitcake. I have made both fruitcake recipes from A Continual Feast, by Evelyn Birge Vitz. (I highly recommend that wonderful cookbook, by the way! You can read more about it in this post about traditional cooking.) The following recipe is my adaptation of her Classic Light Fruitcake recipe.
Why didn’t I just follow that recipe? Because her light fruitcake recipe didn’t call for many spices. This may be normal in light fruitcakes, but I’m not going to make a fruitcake without spices–and lots of them!
My choice of spices for this cake was nutmeg and allspice, with a hint of green cardamom. I was going for warm flavors, but didn’t particularly want cinnamon. It seems like everything else I’m making for Christmas has cinnamon in it!
So I’ll make my excuse that there’s no one right way to make a fruitcake, and leave it at that.
I adjusted a few other ingredients to fit my tastes, and altered the amounts so that the recipe would yield 4 mini loaves instead of 2 large loaves. That’s a better size for our small family, and still gave me a few extra loaves for gifts.
Method
Leave your butter at room temperature until it is soft. Cream it with the sugar until light and fluffy. You can do this with a stand mixer, hand mixer, or with a good old wooden spoon.
Beat in the eggs one at a time, stirring well after each egg is added. Add spirits or fruit juice. You can use any spirit you prefer.
Light fruitcakes “traditionally” take light spirits like light rum or sherry. But that wasn’t the taste I was going for. I like to use brandy; that’s just how a fruitcake should taste, in my mind. If your grandmother always used Scotch or Irish whisky, go for it!
You can also use fruit juice in place of the spirits. Do use a light-colored juice, so it doesn’t turn your batter a muddy color. White grape juice, apple juice or cider, or apricot nectar are all good choices.
I added a touch of cardamom bitters for extra depth of flavor. This is not traditional as far as I know, but it’s one of my favorite flavors. You are welcome to substitute other bitters, or leave it out altogether.
Combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl before adding them to the creamed mixture. (Go easy on the spices if you aren’t a lover of nutmeg!) Last of all, add the mixed dried fruits and peel.
Choose your fruits
Here again is an opportunity for creativity. Use whatever dried or candied fruits you like. Dark raisins, golden raisins, sultanas, currants, dried cherries, dried pineapple, or various combinations of candied fruits are all options here!
I like to make my own candied orange peel. It’s simple to make and tastes much better than what you can buy at the store. However, it is perfectly fine to substitute candied citron or a mix of candied fruit peel if that’s what you have available.
Just make sure the final quantity is equal to what’s specified in the recipe, or your baking times may be different.
Butter your pans and pour the batter in. Bake at 325 degrees for an hour if you use the mini loaf pans. If you use larger pans, heat the oven to 300 degrees and plan to bake them for at least 45 minutes longer.
The cakes are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. I had no trouble with the cakes browning too fast (although I overbaked the ones in the picture), but if you think they are getting too dark, feel free to cover them with aluminum foil.
Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely. Decorate with a confectioner’s sugar glaze and candied cherries or pecan halves.
Aging Fruitcakes
If you won’t be eating the fruitcakes right away, round up some cheesecloth- or plain light cotton cloth will do in a pinch. Turn each cake upside down and pour a little spirits or cider over the bottom of the loaf.
This helps the cakes to stay moist during the aging process, and spirits additionally will help meld the flavors of the different fruits.
Wrap each cake in cheesecloth, and again in aluminum foil. I used cider on two cakes and brandy on the others, so I made sure to label them accordingly!
You may store the wrapped loaves in your refrigerator or in a cool cellar for several weeks to months- although I suspect if you use fruit juice, the won’t last as long.
When you are ready to serve the fruitcakes, unwrap them and decorate as described above.
If you’ve never tried to make fruitcake, I hope this spiced light fruitcake recipe inspires you to give it a go! It’s a very forgiving recipe because it’s supposed to be dense, and it will stand up to a lot of substitutions.
If you do try it, or have your own favorite fruitcake recipe, I would love to hear about it! Leave a comment below.
Spiced Light Fruitcake
Equipment
- cheesecloth
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 eggs
- 3 tbsp spirits or fruit juice see note
- 1/4 tsp citrus or cardamom bitters optional
- 2 cups flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg freshly grated
- 1/2 tsp allspice
- 2/3 cup candied orange peel chopped
- 2 1/2 cups mixed dried fruit
- 4 ounces spirits or apple cider optional
- 2/3 cup confectioner's sugar
- milk
- candied cherries or pecan halves
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
- Cream the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl.
- Beat in eggs one at a time, mixing well between each addition.
- Add spirits or fruit juice and bitters, if using.
- In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices. Add them to creamed mixture until combined.
- Mix in dried fruits and orange peel.
- Butter 4 mini loaf pans. Divide the batter evenly between the pans and smooth the tops. Bake at 325 degrees F for about an hour, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
- To Age: If you are not planning to serve the cakes right away, turn them upside down and slowly pour an ounce of spirits or apple cider over each cake. Wrap each in cheesecloth, and again in aluminum foil. Label and store in the refrigerator or a cool cellar for several weeks.
- Before serving, make a thin glaze of confectioner's sugar and milk. Drizzle over the tops of cakes, and decorate with candied cherries or pecan halves if desired.
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