Festive Fruitcake
This year, the Beard household is having a big, whiskey-soaked fruitcake. In years past I’ve made small fruitcakes, one pounders that were tasty and spirited, but this year it’s a bundt cake. The small loaf is gone too fast!
We were a store-bought, tea-totalling fruitcake family growing up. Nobody liked them, and nobody ate them. When I began making them my opinion of fruitcake changed. I went to all lengths, soaking brown paper and wrapping it tightly, tying in cheesecloth and keeping in a pot, baking in a Bain Marie. To my relief, I’ve found that regular baking techniques work just fine. A standard spice cake recipe with alcohol-soaked fruit bakes up perfectly. I continue “feeding” the cake every other day until serving.
