—SUBMITTED BY CAROLYN
-CLOE—
—Makes 16 lbs. of cake—
2 lb Dates
2 lb Candied cherries; (1 green,
-1 red)
2 lb Raisins
1/2 lb Citron
1/4 lb Lemon peel
1/4 lb Orange peel
2 lb Pineapple; (white, green,
-red)
2 lb Pecans; (+more if you like)
1 16-oz glass Apple jelly
1 16-oz glass Coffee; brewed,
-(Measure in Apple jelly
-glass)
1 lb Sugar; (2 cups)
1 lb Flour; (4 cups)
1 lb Margarine
1 Doz Eggs
1 ts Baking soda; (dissolved in a
-little warm water)
2 ts Baking powder
2 ts Cinnamon; ground
2 ts Clove; ground
2 ts Nutmeg; ground
(Reserve a few cherries and pieces of pineapple, and pecan halves for
decorating tops of cakes.)
Cut dates, peels, and pineapple. Chop coarsely the pecans. Place into a
container large enough to handle all the cake batter. Add rest of fruit.
Sprinkle fruit/pecan mixture with flour (from the 4-cups), tossing mixture
to coat with flour.
Cream margarine and sugar. Add eggs, jelly. Mix spices and baking powder
into the flour, stir well. Add flour mixture alternately with coffee. Pour
over fruit and mix (use hands and mix well).
Prepare pans for baking fruitcakes. Grease the pans completely and cut wax
paper to fit the bottoms. (Mrs. Hawkins uses small round pans (not rounded
bottoms) and places a small greased cheese glass in the center of each pan
to make a hole in the center of each cake. She also uses some rectangular
pans for small loaf cakes.) Keep each cake under 3 lbs. and it will do
better; larger than that does not turn out as well. Spoon the mixture into
the pans. (Mrs. Hawkins pointed out that the cake does not rise during
baking, therefore fill the pans accordingly.) Decorate the top of each cake
with reserved cherries, pieces of pineapple and pecan halves. It does not
hurt to let the cakes set until they can be baked. Cover waiting unbaked
cakes with damp towels. The unbaked, towel covered, cakes can also be
refrigerated overnight if necessary.
Baking the cakes — The cakes are steamed for the first 3 hours of cooking
on top of the stove in a large covered pan as follows: Place the cake in a
brown paper sack. Put water in the bottom of the large steaming pan (about
1″ to 2″ deep). Place a rack or old dish or something in bottom of steaming
pan to hold the cake up out of the water (Mrs. Hawkins uses old saucers
turned upside down — maybe old bowls to hold it up a little higher). Place
the paper sack holding the unbaked cake on top of the “rack” in the
steaming pan, and cover the steaming pan. Steam for 3 hours on top of stove
(she did not indicate required heat – I would guess bringing the water to a
boil, then lower heat so that water is just simmering. Add water to
steaming pan as necessary to prevent it from going dry). After cake is
steamed, remove it from the paper sack and put it into another dry paper
sack and bake in a slow oven for 1 hour. When done, remove cake from sack,
twist glass and remove. Run knife around cake and turn out onto a plate.
Then turn back over on piece of foil. Sometimes the pieces of fruit from
the top of the cake will stick to the plate – just place them back on the
cake and as it cools it will stick to the cake.
NOTE: You can vary the fruit. If you don’t like citron, you can substitute
it with 1/2 lb. of pineapple or extra pecans, etc. Mrs. Hawkins said that
the original recipe for this cake called for whiskey in the place of the
coffee, and that she had tried both and prefers the coffee. They are the
most beautiful and tasty fruitcake I have ever tried. They are a rich brown
color, and the fruit and pecans on top give it a nice “chunky” surface with
a beautiful glazed appearance. These cakes make fabulous gifts. They also
freeze well.
NOTES :
Yields
1 Servings