Here is the Recipe for White Fruitcake that Dreams are Made Of (2024)

FAQs

What alcohol is good for fruit cake? ›

Other good choices of booze include brandy, rum, or whiskey. Feel free to use one or a mix of these to best complement your fruitcake. Once you've chosen the liquor, bake the cake, poke holes throughout the whole thing, and pour a few tablespoons of the alcohol over it. Or, you can brush the cake with the alcohol.

You can soak the fruit for days (or weeks) by adding alcohol and mixing as you go, allowing the dried fruit to soak up all the liquid. We do this by adding alcohol (or fruit juice or even a mix) bit by bit until the fruit is plump, or you can just soak overnight and add the rest of the alcohol after the cake is baked.

Fruitcake is no ordinary cake. It can stay fresh and edible for months after baking. What typically makes fruitcake last so long is its super dense texture. This texture prevents, let's say, less than appetizing things from setting up camp in the cake's crevices.

We recommend wrapping your fruitcake in plastic wrap before placing it in an airtight container. Then, place that container in the fridge. Doing this can ensure your fruitcake stays fresh for up to two months.

When cooled, remove cakes from pans and remove parchment paper. Brush cakes generously with sweet sherry, brandy, rum, port, liqueur or fruit juice; do not use wine. Using fruit juice can increase the chances of your fruitcake going mouldy. Wrap each cake in several layers of cheesecloth and then in plastic wrap.

Tequila, rum and gin can work nicely if you choose additives that complement the botanicals used in the distillation process. And darker spirits like brandy and bourbon work well if you pair your fruit with the toasty, caramel, and other complex notes present in barrel aged products.

What alcohol should be used to soak the fruit? I love using Brandy and sometimes a little Cointreau as well. Alcohol/Grape juice – Now this is subjective to your liking. I personally use a mix of Brandy and Cointreau, Dark rum also works well here.

So wrap in a damp towel and refrigerate for a few days. warming the fruitcake or slices can make them softer and soaking in some brandy or rum will help.

Whiskey serves as a great substitute for brandy in a fruitcake. Although whiskey comes from fermented grain mash while brandy is made from fermented grape mash, the process is so similar, that the flavor will be similar as well.

Even older is the fruitcake left behind in Antarctica by the explorer Robert Falcon Scott in 1910. But the honor for the oldest known existing fruitcake goes to one that was baked in 1878 when Rutherford B. Hayes was president of the United States.

Why doesn't fruit cake go bad? ›

“Foods with low amounts of moisture, like fruitcakes and Twinkies, are resistant to the growth of microorganisms because you need a certain amount of moisture for spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms to grow,” Le explains.

Like Fine Wine, Fruitcake Get Better With Time

But before you RSVP to bring dessert, you must plan ahead. Like we said, aging a fruitcake will take a little time. The most common duration to properly age a fruitcake is about three months.

Don't open the oven door until the cake is almost cooked

Similarly, when you're putting the cake into the oven, don't hang about and let all the heat out.

If you have too much flour in a recipe and not enough fat, like butter or oil, your cake is going to be dry and hard. For best results, I would encourage you to use a scale when baking, but if you don't have a scale, then just make sure you're using measuring cups correctly.

This can happen for a variety of reasons ranging from type of flour, not enough eggs/wrong size eggs, not enough liquid or fats and even storage. 'Causes of crumbly fruit cake'.

Baking with booze—such as bourbon, rum, port and vodka—can add additional flavor, texture and even change the consistency of many baked goods.

Unless you use so much it can't all burn off in the cook time it's in. That said, alcohol burns off slower than people think. A hours baking couid leave 25% of the alcohol and two hours still approx 5%.

I love the flavor of spiced rum in my Christmas cake, so that's what I use to soak my fruit. The dried fruits get rehydrated in the rum and soaks it all up, making it super juicy and flavorful. If you can't find spiced rum, you can also use dark rum, cognac, brandy or sherry to soak your fruits.