Fabulous Holiday Fruitcake Pt 1

–CAKE–
Solid shortening
Butter flavored no stick
-cooking spray
1 lg Egg
3 Whole egg whites
1 3/4 c Light brown sugar; packed
1/2 c Canola oil; or safflower oil
1/2 c Honey
1/3 c Apple juice; or orange juice
2 c Unsweetened applesauce
2 ts Vanilla
2 tb Grated orange peel; or 1/2
-tsp pure orange oil or
-extract
2 1/4 c All-purpose flour; unsifted
1 c Whole wheat pastry flour;
-unsifted or use all
-all-purpose flour
1 1/2 ts Baking powder
1/2 ts Baking soda
3/4 ts Salt
1 1/2 ts Cinnamon
1 ts Nutmeg
1/2 ts Ground cloves
1/3 c Wheat germ
Dark rum or brandy for
-soaking cakes; optional
2 Recipes Vanilla Icing Glaze
Pecan or walnut halves;
-optional or blanched whole
-almonds, optional

VANILLA ICING GLAZE
1 c Confectioner’s sugar
1 1/2 tb Apple juice; up to 2 tbl or
-strained orange juice, dark
-rum, or brandy
1/4 ts Vanilla extract

Fabulous Holiday Fruitcake (from Susan Purdy’s Have Your Cake and Eat it
Too)

“This recipe is your special reward for buying this book. You will thank
me, I promise. This is a fruitcake you can, and will, love. You will make
it, serve it, and eat it with pleasure. This fruit- cake never has been or
will be, recycled, used to fill a pothole, used to pound nails, used as an
anchor. The recipe, rather than the fruitcake itself, will become a
heirloom you will pass to your child as I have to mind.

There are two secret ingredients here: the cake and the fruit. A moist,
lightly spiced applesauce cake with a fine, flavorful crumb binds a
cornucopia of naturally sweet (not candied) dried fruits. Not a red or
green one in the lot. Just natural, organic, dried fruits from the natural
food store or fine grocery cut up with kitchen shears or chopped with a
knife. Try apples, apricots, pears, peaches, pineapple, prunes, dates,
black and golden raisins, and currants. Not creative enough? Add dried
mango or papaya, or dried cherries, cranberries, or blueberries. Candied
pineapple is neither medicinal nor chemical in taste; it is the one
holdover that I occasionally use. I have avoided nuts because they are so
high in fat, and with the great variety of ingredients, I don’t miss them.
If you wish, you can use halved nuts to garnish the cake top along with the
Vanilla Icing Glaze.

A perfect Christmas gift cake, this makes one-stop shopping: You get eight
small loaves with this recipe.

Don’t be put off by the long list of ingredients; fruitcake is supposed to
have a lot of stuff in it.”

Yield: Makes 14 cups of batter; 8 small loaves (5 1/2 x 3 x 2 1/8), 8