http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Cakes/Fruitcake.htm
Timeline of fruit cake.
What are fruit cake?
Fruitcakes are holiday and wedding cakes which have a very heavy fruit content. They require special handling and baking to obtain successful results.
The name "fruitcake" can be traced back only as far as the Middle Ages. It is formed from a combination of the Latin fructus, and French frui or frug.
The oldest reference that can be found regarding a fruitcake dates back to Roman times. The recipe included pomegranate seeds, pine nuts, and raisins that were mixed into barley mash. Honey, spices, and preserved fruits were added during the Middle Ages. Crusaders and hunters were reported to have carried this type of cake to sustain themselves over long periods of time away from home.
1400s - The British began their love affair with fruitcake when dried fruits from the Mediterranean first arrived.
1700s - In Europe, a ceremonial type of fruitcake was baked at the end of the nut harvest and saved and eaten the next year to celebrate the beginning of the next harvest, hoping it will bring them another successful harvest. After the harvest, nuts were mixed and made into a fruitcake that was saved until the following year. At that time, previous year's fruitcakes were consumed in the hope that its symbolism would bring the blessing of another successful harvest
In the early 18th century, fruitcake (called plum cakes) was outlawed entirely throughout Continental Europe. These cakes were considered as "sinfully rich." By the end of the 18th century there were laws restricting the use of plum cake.
Between 1837 and 1901, fruitcake was extremely popular. A Victorian "Tea" would not have been complete without the addition of the fruitcake to the sweet and savory spread. Queen Victoria is said to have waited a year to eat a fruitcake she received for her birthday because she felt it showed restraint, moderation and good taste.
It was the custom in England for unmarried wedding guests to put a slice of the cake, traditionally a dark fruitcake, under their pillow at night so they will dream of the person they will marry.
Here is another interesting site about the histroy of fruit cake.
The History of Fruit Cake
By Arlene Wright-Correll
http://www.phancypages.com/newsletter/Znewsletter2346.htm
I have always loved fruit cake. Carl loves fruit cake. However, for some reason the fruit cake genes did not spill over into our 5 children. We could eat it all year round. There is a standard old joke about the oldest family heirloom being a fruit cake. Is there any food product anywhere that is more ridiculed and parodied during the holiday season than the poor old fruitcake?
Our late sister-in-law, Martha Wright-Enright made the most wonderful fruit cakes. She made them at the end of July. She baked them in 1 pound coffee tins and after they were baked she wrapped them in cheese cloth, put them back into the coffee tins and soaked them with brandy before putting the tops back onto the tins. She then stored them in the attic until Christmas time. They were the most glorious fruit cakes. Generally, fruitcake is a mixture of fruits and nuts with just enough batter to hold them together. When wrapped in cloth and foil, saturated with alcoholic liquors regularly, and kept in tightly closed tins, a fruitcake may be kept for months or even years.
A good fruit cake recipe includes red domestic and imported French cherries, select almonds, crisp Georgia pecans, California walnuts and raisins, imported pineapple, and lemon and orange peel. Plus some sort of liquor or brandy.
The ratio of fruit and nuts to batter is fairly high, with just enough cake batter to hold it all together. This results in a very dense, heavy cake. Fruitcakes have traditionally been classified as either light or dark,
although it is not necessarily the color that counts.
The lighter ones are less rich than their darker cousins and have subtler flavors and aroma. They are made with granulated sugar, light corn syrup, almonds, golden raisins, pineapple and apricots. The darker cakes are considered by some bakers to be the top of the line. They are much bolder in flavor and appearance. These get their color from molasses, brown sugar, raisins, prunes, dates, cherries, pecans and walnuts. The more expensive fruit cakes have brandy or liquor in them.
It seems that fruit cakes materialize just in time for the Christmas Holidays. The oldest fruitcake company in the United States is the Collin Street Bakery, Corsicana Texas [1896]
While the practice of making cakes with dried fruits, honey and nuts may be traced back to ancient times, food historians generally agree that fruitcake (as we know it today) dates back to the Middle ages.
Fruit cake is a British specialty. English passed out slices of cake to poor women who sang Christmas carols in the street during the late 1700s. It is known that in England by the end of the 18th century there were laws restricting the use of plum cake (plum being the generic word for dried fruit at the time) to Christmas, Easter, weddings, christenings and funerals. The fruit cake as known today cannot date back much beyond the Middle Ages. It was only in the 13th century that dried fruits began to arrive in Britain, from Portugal and the east Mediterranean. Lightly fruited breads were probably more common than anything resembling the modern fruit cake during the Middle Ages. Early versions of the rich fruit cake, such as Scottish Black Bun dating from the Middle Ages, were luxuries for special occasions. Fruit cakes have been used for celebrations since at least the early 18th century when bride cakes and plum cakes, descended from enriched bread recipes, became cookery standards.
Fruit breads which include yeast are not to be confused with fruit cake which does not. The Victorians enjoyed their fruitcakes. Even today it remains a custom in England for unmarried wedding guests to put a slice of dark fruitcake under their pillow at night so they will dream of the person they will marry. It is said that Queen Victoria once waited a year to devour a birthday fruitcake because she felt it showed restraint.
Making a rich fruit cake in the 18th century was a major undertaking. The ingredients had to be carefully prepared. Fruit was washed, dried, and stoned (taking out the pits) if necessary; sugar, cut
from loaves, had to be pounded and sieved; butter washed in water and rinsed in rosewater. Eggs were beaten for a long time, half an hour being commonly directed. Yeast, or barm from fermenting beer, had to be coaxed to life. Finally, the cook had to cope with the temperamental wood-fired baking ovens of that time. No wonder these cakes acquired such mystique...
Fruit cakes are good to take camping and hiking. Pickled or aged fruitcakes, as their devotees (and there aren’t many) like to call them, have the legendary ability to last a long time. Crusaders were said to have packed cakes into their saddlebags and backpacks, before heading down the rocky road to the Holy Grail. Panforte, a thin chewy fruitcake originating in Italy more than a thousand years ago and taken on The Crusades, is still made today. The history of fruitcake is also closely related to the European nut harvests of the 1700s. After the harvest, accumulated nuts were mixed and made into a fruitcake that was saved until the following year. At that time, the fruitcake was consumed in the hope that its symbolism would bring the blessing of another successful harvest.
Immigrants from Germany, England, The Caribbean and other parts of the world brought their own style of fruitcakes to the United States and that’s why no one can agree on the definition of a fruitcake. The ones displayed in groceries are almost all Americanized versions of the classic.
The last time I was in Scotland, I came across a fruit cake type of cake called Dundee Cake and it was quite good.
Dundee Cake
Prep 35 minutes plus overnight to stand
Bake 2 hours to 2 hours 15 minutes
Some what more subtle than a holiday fruitcake, this popular Scottish teacake is topped with whole almonds and lightly flavored with orange.
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2/3 cup blanched whole almonds
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup golden raisins
2/3 cup dried currants
1/2 cup diced candied citron
1/2 cup diced candied orange or lemon peel
1/2 cup red candied cherries, chopped
1 cup butter or margarine (2 sticks), softened
4 large eggs
2 tablespoons orange-flavored liqueur
1 Preheat oven to 300º F. Grease and flour 8-inch spring form pan.
2 In medium bowl stir together flour, baking powder, salt, allspice, and cinnamon.
3 In food processor with knife blade attached, combine 1/3 cup almonds and 1/4 cup sugar. Process until almonds are finely ground. In medium bowl, mix ground-almond mixture, raisins, currants, citron, orange peel and cherries.
4 In large bowl, with mixer at low speed, beat remaining 3/4 cup sugar and butter until blended. Increase speed to medium-high and beat 5 minutes, or until light and creamy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in orange liqueur. Reduce speed to low; beat in flour mixture until blended, scraping bowl (batter will be thick). Stir in fruit mixture.
5. Spoon batter into prepared pan, spreading evenly. Arrange remaining 1/3 cup almonds on top of batter. Bake 2 hours to 2 hours 15 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cover pan loosely with foil after 1 hour to prevent top from over browning. Cool in pan on wire rack 20 minutes. With small knife, loosen cake from side of pan; remove pan side. Cool completely on wire rack. When cool, remove pan bottom and wrap cake in plastic wrap and then in foil. Let stand overnight before serving. Makes 20 servings.
Almost like Martha Wright-Enright’s Fruit cake
1 cup diced glazed candied orange peel
1 cup diced glazed candied lemon peel
2 cups diced citron
1 cup currants
2 cups seedless raisins, chopped
1/2 cup dry red wine
1/2 cup brandy
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground mace
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plus 6 Tbsp butter, room temperature
2 cups brown sugar
5 eggs, separated
1/2 cup sorghum molasses
Mix all the fruit in a large bowl and pour in the wine and brandy. Stir gently and set aside to marinate for a few hours.
Butter a 10-inch tube pan or two 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pans and line it (or them) with clean parchment paper. Butter the paper.
Sift the flour with the spices twice. Add the baking powder and salt and sift again.
Put the butter into a large mixing bowl and cream until satiny. Add sugar and, using an electric mixer, cream until light and fluffy. Beat the egg yolks slightly and then add them to the bowl. Mix the batter well before you start to add the flour-spice mixture. Stir the batter as you add the flour, a little at a time, stirring well after each addition. When the flour is thoroughly incorporated, add the molasses and stir. Finally, stir in the fruit and any soaking liquid in the bowl.
Put the egg whites in a grease-free bowl and beat with a clean beater until they hold stiff peaks. Fold them into the batter thoroughly and then spoon the batter into the prepared pan ( or pans ). Cover loosely with a clean cloth and let the batter sit overnight in a cool place to mellow.
On the next day, heat the oven to 250 degrees. Place the fruitcake on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 3 1/2 to 4 hours. After 1 1/2 hours, cover the pan with a piece of brown paper (do not use foil) or set the pan in a paper bag and return it to the oven.
When the cake has baked for 3 1/2 hours, remove it from the oven and listen closely for any quiet, bubbling noises. If you hear the cake, it needs more baking. Or test the cake with a toothpick or cake tester. If the toothpick or tester comes out of the center of the cake clean, the cake is ready to take from the oven. Put it on a wire rack to cool, still in the pan.
When the cake is completely cool, turn it out of the pan (pans), leaving the brown-paper lining on the cake. Wrap the cake with parchment, then aluminum foil, and pack the cake in a tin. Homemade fruitcakes need air, so punch a few holes in the lid of the tin or set the cover loosely on the tin.
Set the tin in a cool, undisturbed place, and every two or three weeks before Christmas, open the foil and sprinkle the cake with a liqueur glassful of brandy, wine, or whiskey. The liquor will keep the cake most and flavorful and help preserve it as well.
Fruitcake # 2
2 pounds pitted dates
1/2 pound green candied cherries
1/2 pound red candied cherries
1 pound candied pineapple (cut in pieces, if whole)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 pound English Walnuts, shelled
1 pound pecans, shelled
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Leave nuts and fruit as whole as possible.
Sift flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder over fruit and nuts. Mix well with hands.
Beat eggs and vanilla extract and pour over flour mixture. Blend well.
Line two bread pans with wax paper and butter well. Divide dough into the two pans and bake at 200 degrees F for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Put on rack to cool.
When cool, wrap tightly in foil or freezer paper.
Tiny Christmas Fruit Cakes
1/4 pound candied cherries, chopped
3 candied pineapple slices, chopped
2 1/4 cups chopped pecans
1 (6 ounce) can coconut
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
3 tablespoons butter (do not melt)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
Cut or chop fruit and nuts. Add fruit, nuts and coconut to milk, butter and vanilla extract. Mix well.
Grease tiny muffin tins very well and fill three-fourths full. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden on top. Remove carefully when cool.
Quick Mincemeat Fruitcake
2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 (28 ounce) jar ready-to-use mincemeat
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup chopped walnuts
2 cups candied mixed fruit
Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Line two 9 x 4-inch loaf pans with wax paper.
Sift the flour and baking soda together.
In a large bowl, combine eggs, mincemeat, condensed milk, fruit and nuts. Fold in dry ingredients. Pour into prepared pans. Bake for 2 hours or until center springs back and top is golden brown. Cool.
Turn cakes out onto a wire rack; remove wax paper
Happy Baking
