SC - Sweets to the sweet, have some fruitcake...

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Lilinah biti-Anat wrote:
> 
> OK, so it's long past the time to make one, but does anyone have a
> GOOD recipe for fruit cake that DOES NOT involve maraschino cherries?
> and uses more dried fruit than candied fruit? I don't mind some
> candied citron, but those neon red and green cherries make me shudder
> :-) And if it's soaked in some sort of spirits, why that's fine with
> me...

"IRISH CHRISTMAS CAKE
	<from Malachi McCormick's "Irish Country Cooking", ©1988 Malachi
McCormick, pub. Clarkson N. Potter, NY>

	This is the Great Irish Cake, the traditional pièce de résistance, into
which the Irish cook/baker sank her, and sometimes his, main effort --
and reputation.

	At home, the night for Christmas cake making was mysteriously chosen,
toward the end of October or the beginning of November. My mother never
lacked for little helpers who shopped for the dried fruit and candied
peel, and who chopped and sliced and stirred, so willingly...and tested,
exhaustively; in the mid-forties, even after the end of World War II, we
still had our ration books, and goodies were in very short supply.

	It was a night of great excitement. Soon the house would be filled with
that most seductive of perfumes, the rich smell of home baking.
Afterwards, the cakes were consigned, in their cake tins, to a special
shelf in the pantry for a period of 'gestation'. From time to time they
were nursed with little slugs of (Irish) whiskey.

	By the time Christmas came around, both the cake and our anticipation
of it had matured perfectly. Who could forget that rich, fruty, nutty,
marzipan-covered oblation?

1 cup dark raisins
1 cup golden raisins (sultanas)
1 cup currants
1 raw apple, grated
1 cup glacé cherries, halved
2 cups mixed nuts, chopped (almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, Brazil nuts)
1/2 cup mixed candied peel, chopped
1 cup mixed dried fruit, chopped (apricots, prunes, figs)
Juice and grated rind of one lemon and one orange
2 cups sugar
1 pound butter
8 eggs
5 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 jigger (Irish) whiskey

	The night before you plan to bake the cake, preheat the oven to 200
degrees F.

	Mix together all the fruits, nuts, candied peel, and dried fruit in a
large ovenproof dish. Add the grated rinds and juices of the lemon and
orange, and mix again. Cover the dish and place in the oven for one
hour. Then turn off the oven and let the dish cool there overnight. The
blending of fruit, nut, and peel flavors is a key element in this recipe.

	The next day, cream the butter and sugar thoroughly. Beat the eggs
well, and with a wooden spoon, slowly fold them into the creamed
sugar-butter mixture. With your hands, sift the cake flour with the
salt, in a large bowl. Fold the egg-sugar-butter mixture slowly into the
flour, using a wooden spoon. Then add the fruit-nuts-peel mix and the
whiskey, and mix them all in well.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a round 12-inch cake pan, and
line it with two leaves of wax paper. Put the cake mixture in and level
it. Put a lid on the pan, or cover it with foil, and put the cake in the oven.

	After one hour of baking, reduce the oven heat to 275 degrees F. After
another two hours, take the lid off. Continue baking for three more
hours, until nicely browned. If the cake is browning too quickly, turn
down the heat a little, and replace the lid or foil. The total baking
time is six hours, but be sure to test the cake with a knife blade,
making sure it comes out clean, before turning off the heat.

	Take the cake out of the oven and let it stand to cool. Remove the cake
from the pan, then wrap it in foil and store in a cake tin. Every week,
sprinkle a couple of tablespoons of whiskey over it, until Christmas
time. Traditionally the cake is iced with marzipan, glazed, and
decorated, as desired, but usually with a sprig of berried holly.

	Yields one round 12-inch cake."

NOTES:
1) This cake is fairly unique among fruitcakes in that it contains no
spices, doesn't seem to need them, either, and is a pale golden cake not
unlike pound cake with stuff in it. People have tried it and told me it
wasn't fruit cake; couldn't be: it's good!

2) Pitted, dried cherries can be substituted for the glacé cherries.

3) Malachi McCormick is a certifiable madman living on Staten Island,
New York (birthplace of the East Kingdom!), owner of the Stone Street
Press, which turns out hand-bound books which McCormick personally
hand-calligraphs on rag paper. This recipe was originally published in
his own hand-printed-and-bound volume entitled "Irish Festive Fare",
part of a series including volumes on Irish soups, breads and cakes,
dishes calling for Stout or Porter, the one-pan breakfasts, brunches,
lunches and dinners known as "fries", and The Decent Dish of Tea. The
Clarkson Potter volume is a sort of "best of" Malachi McCormick, from
these other books. Highly recommended, as are his non-culinary volumes
of Irish poetry (some of which actually _is_ culinary) and history.   

> Also, i remember from long ago reading some recipes that called for
> candied angelica. Is this something anyone has found or made, and if
> so, how does it taste?

A little like ginseng, I guess. Angelica is one of the principal
flavorings of the Scots liquer Drambuie.

Hope this helps!

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com


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