Kitchen Detail: Fruitcake Is Your Friend

Dorothy Remington Pollard’s glorious cake, made from the best ingredients. / Photo here and on the front by Nancy Pollard.

After owning one of the best cooking stores in the US for 47 years—La Cuisine in Alexandria, Virginia—Nancy Pollard writes Kitchen Detail, a blog about food in all its aspects—recipes, film, books, travel, superior sources and food-related issues.

By Nancy Pollard

MY MOTHER-IN-LAW made heavenly fruitcake. Stephanie Gorenflo, our baking Cuisinette extraordinaire, made a divine one too. But I know their superior results don’t tell the whole fruitcake tale. When my family received commercial fruitcakes as gifts, they were indeed, pretty much the proverbial joke that we all know.* In many cases, the additives listed on their labels made longer reading than the actual ingredients. And in some instances, the fruit consisted primarily of candied melon rinds colored to look like the fruit of choice. But, real fruitcake is a different thing entirely. Studded with genuine candied fruits and fresh nuts and flavored with complex spices, it becomes one of the most glorious things in a cook’s Christmas repertoire. Your home-baked version of either this fruitcake or one from another book will really be appreciated by any recipient. Trust me, there is nothing better (except maybe a bubble bath) than a slice of (good) fruitcake with a cup of tea on a dreary February day.

Ingredients and Recipes Make a Difference

I remember watching my mother-in-law, who worked full-time, prepping her fruitcake progression. On a Friday after work in November, she stopped at her Safeway to get her ingredients. On Saturday, she would precisely cut brown paper grocery bags to fit the interior sides and base of all of her pans. Then she would mix all of her fruits and nuts in a large bowl, pour some bourbon over the concoction, and cover it with a dish towel. Then on Sunday she would mix the batter and fold in the fruit-and-nut mixture (having dredged it in some of the spiced flour). The cakes were baked and then wrapped in bourbon-soaked cheesecloth.  Her recipe came from one of the few cookbooks she had in the cupboard—The United States Regional Cookbook edited by Ruth Berolzheimer in 1939. I used to look at it, with its grainy black-and-white photos, frequently when my husband and I stayed with my in-laws. It even had little  thumb indexes, indented places along the outside edge, with a label in each to indicate different chapters in the book. There are chapters with recipes  dedicated to New England, the South, Pennsylvania Dutch, Creole, Michigan, Mississippi Valley, Wisconsin Dutch, Minnesota Scandinavian, the Southwest, the West, and something titled Cosmopolitan America.

Fruitcake’s keeping power, like its Italian counterpart, Panforte, is remarkable. It can be wrapped in cheesecloth or cling wrap, and kept frozen or at room temperature. It should have a regular dose of the liqueur or fruit juice of your choice brushed on top. One customer in the shop told me that in his family, the fruitcakes were stored in the sideboard with a glass of whiskey in the center hole of each cake.

The Jewel in the Crown

Most fruitcake recipes will give you enough batter to make an assortment of sizes, so this is the time to allot smaller ones in disposable cake pans to your closest friends. My favorite disposable pans are the ones from Panibois (right) or Novacart. Panibois are made by a French company, and the frame is a birchwood veneer (which is bakeable up to 500F) with a peelable and ovenproof  paper liner. Novacart is an Italian company that pretty much dominates the patisserie world. And like Panibois, their disposable containers are ecologically friendly. In either case, there is no greasing or flouring involved, as the paper or the cardboard pull away. I make at least one showpiece fruitcake to keep on a cake stand that was baked in one of the Birth-Gramm copper molds that we used to sell at La Cuisine.

Here are a few things I have learned along the way. We found that Light Muscovado sugar has more flavor than light brown sugar, which is why we always baked with India Tree Muscovado. I still do. The best candied fruits come from Italy, France, Australia, and sometimes California. Vanini, International Glace, Pariani, Agrimontana are all superlative producers of candied fruit, and online sources abound.

Fruitcakes are best when made at least four weeks in advance. No need to turn fruitcake-making into a one-day marathon. It is easier to chop fruits and nuts on one day, then mix into batter the next. When baking, you can place a pan of hot water in the bottom of your oven for a moister fruitcake. Cool the cakes in their pans, then turn them out, give them a baste with your preferred liqueur.  Before storing in an airtight container (I use a large plastic box designed to hold boots), you can wrap them in soaked cheesecloth or just in cling wrap. If they are baked in disposable containers, just brush the tops thoroughly, and regularly, with your liqueur, brandy, or whiskey. On the issue of cheesecloth, I have found, after way too much trial and error, that the best one is an organic cheesecloth that is manufactured by a New Zealand company called Country Trading Co.—and you can even wash and reuse it.

Still need inspiration? There is a nifty little book Fruitcake: Memories of Truman Capote & Sook. which was written by Capote’s great-aunt. Besides her charming memories of the author and his cousin Sook, you’ll have 22 different fruitcake recipes. If Dorothy Remington Pollard’s recipe doesn’t suit, you’ll surely find one that can become your family tradition. But when you are counting out cakes to give away, make sure to stash away at least one for yourself to relish during those interminable dreary days of winter.

As far as Dorothy Remington Pollard’s recipe is concerned, if you don’t like glacéed fruit, use a variety of dried fruits. Change the nuts to ones that suit you, if almonds and pecans aren’t to your liking. Her recipe is as unflappable as it is delicious. Trust me.

Dorothy Remington Pollard’s Fruitcake