Fruitcakes. They’re a joke, right? We’ve all heard how fruitcakes make great door stops and the rumor that there is only one fruitcake on earth that just keeps being regifted. Some people actually LIKE fruitcake, like my mother in law.
I have sampled fruitcake over the years and while it seems a festive idea, it’s just not a very palatable one. I remember when I was fairly young my cousin’s grandma sent a fruitcake to her family for Christmas. It was one of the times that I tasted fruit cake that I thought, wow, this is actually kind of good. What I remember about that particular fruitcake is that it was loaded with booze and nuts. Yum!
When I saw this recipe for Bourbon Date Nut cake, I thought this might be a nice alternative to the traditional holiday fruitcake and it might even be tasty!
First I preheated the oven to 250 degrees F and buttered and floured my round angel food pan.
In the mixer, I creamed the butter and sugar.
Each egg is added one at a time. Make sure to mix in before adding the next.
Mix the flour, baking powder and nutmeg together in a bowl. Reserve ¼ cup of flour for dredging the nuts.
Add the vanilla and almond extracts to the bourbon.
Add flour and bourbon mixtures alternately to the creamed butter, sugar and eggs.
Flour the nuts.
Fold the nuts, dates and coconut into the cake batter.
Spread into prepared baking pan.
Cover the cake with foil for the first few hours of the baking period. Depending on how brown you want the cake to become will determine when you remove the foil. You can place a pan of water into the oven to prevent the cake from cracking.
Bake the cake for 6 (yes six!) hours at 250 degrees.
The cake looked a little parched when I took it out of the oven so I gave it another drink of bourbon after removing it from the pan.
This makes a wonderful, cakey, boozy “fruit” cake that I’m sure you will agree is Mmmmm FABU!
Edible Fruit Cake a.k.a. Bourbon Date Nut Cake
1 cup salted butter or unsalted butter
2 cups granulated sugar
6 medium eggs
4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 cup bourbon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 lb finely chopped pecans
7 1/4 ounces pitted dates, chopped
3 tablespoons coconut
Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Butter and flour an angel food pan or bundt pan. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each egg.
Mix flour, baking powder and nutmeg together, reserving 1/4 cup flour to dredge the nuts.
Add the flour mixture alternately with the bourbon, almond and vanilla.
Fold the the nuts, dates and coconut into cake batter.
Pour this mixture into the prepared cake pan.
Cover the cake with foil for the first few hours of the baking period, removing the foil at your discretion depending on how brown you want it to become. You can place a pan of water in the oven to prevent cracking.
Bake the cake for six (yes six!) hours. If one cup of bourbon isn’t enough, you might want to sprinkle some more on top of the finished cake before it cools.
Lauri Rottmayer authors The FABU Highway
No comments
