Now, before I begin, let me first state my opinion about fruitcake....hate it. Period.
However, the point of the club, for me at least, is to bake all the recipes in the book, not just the ones that appeal to me (ie. the chocolate ones). So I did it...I made the dreaded fruitcakes.
I decided to make these yesterday, and since my cleaning ladies were coming in the afternoon, I wanted to get these made before my kitchen was spotless thanks to their efforts. I think this self-imposed schedule will hopefully explain some of the mistakes/errors/substitutions below.
The recipe calls for dried apricots, dried figs, and dried dates. However, Martha does say that you can use any other dried fruit if you want to (as long as it is high quality). It also calls for hazelnuts and hazelnut liqueur, or brandy.
Of course, I didn't really read the recipe all the way through before shopping, I just glanced at it. But I thought that I had read it thoroughly, so when I went to bake these, I thought that I had all the ingredients on hand. Ha ha ha ha....of course I didn't! I had bought apricots and figs, but the figs were all used up for something else!! At least I had remembered to save some of the dried apricots. And dates...what? Dates?
So instead I used a mixture of apricots, golden raisins and some dried mangoes that I happened to have left in the cupboard. NOTE TO OTHER BAKERS...I didn't chop these small enough...because, like usual, I was trying to quickly make these before doing something else...so I should have chopped more!!
And since I don't drink/buy/bake with alcohol, I substitute rum extract and water for the hazelnut liqueur.
And one more substitution: I used pecans instead of hazelnuts because that's all I had.
So...the batter was actually quite good, but I was nervous about the small amount of batter vs. fruit. But when I baked these, they spread out over the whole top of the pan. I had to wait for the cakes to cool and then rip them apart to get separate cakes!
Martha suggests topping these with 7 minute frosting and then making cute little meringue mushrooms to sit on top...but since mine looked like someone or something had been nibbling away at the edges anyway, I wasn't about to waste anymore time on these. So I just made a quick vanilla buttercream and smeared it onto the cupcakes. Voila!! All done.
But, guess what, they taste pretty good!! You have to like fruit and nuts in your cakes, but the taste was really rich and almost buttery. The rum extract added a nice zing too. And, unlike all the fruitcakes I ever remember having my grandma force me to eat, these were moist and quite light!
My verdict...from the one bite that I had to try them (still on the no-treat rule)...I think I will make these next Christmas, but I'll cut the fruit a lot smaller.
My kids verdict...delicious!
I just had a few friends try these...same verdict, yummy cake but too much fruit.
5 comments:
I'm one of those weirdos that actually likes fruit cake, and this sounds really good!
Janine, thanks so much for baking the fruitcakes this month. It just might be three of us trying it out- and I'm so glad that you like it. I am usually like you, half reading the recipe and then missing some ingredient (like this morning when i was making red velvet whoopie pies and forgot the sugar- and then i tasted the batter at the end- oh no! unsweet!-and dumped it in last.) Thankfully yours still turned out delicious!
Janine, Thanks for baking! I agree that making it through the book is the goal! It definitely inspires me to try new things, like getting out of my cream cheese frosting comfort zone! I'm glad your "non-traditional" fruitcakes turned out and that you had kid appreciation!
Yours look very pretty! And, as long as they taste good, who really cares?
I love fruitcake. Love the texture and the nuts and the richness of the whole thing. So does Martha teach technique too? Any tips you are so glad you know now? Any recipe that you just repeat over and over again?
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