STEPHANIE'S SLICE OF LIFE

I have never tasted a Fruit Cake until this cake. They were not something I ever had a desire to taste, and honestly they seemed very unappetizing to me. As I was perusing through my mom’s old Betty Crocker cookbook they caught my eye. I really don’t know why, maybe because of the vintage feel. For whatever reason, they intrigued me. So here we are, a recipe for Fruit Cake.

My mother hated them and would probably be horrified if out of all the pages in that book, I chose to stop at Fruit Cakes. My husband saw the apricots, dates, cherries, and pineapple on the counter and said “You aren’t making a fruit cake, are you fruit cake?”. Then proceeded to tell me he wasn’t going to try it. That went without saying for my children, but I was going to try it. While combining all of the ingredients I just kept thinking how bizarre this whole recipe seemed.

Some of the fruit listed in the ingredients were not something I could find, like candied pineapple or green maraschino cherries. I did find dried pineapple slices and that is what I used. I omitted the nuts as my family has allergies, but I have included them in the recipe.

I have to admit, I didn’t mind it. The dates were a little overpowering, however. If I were to make this again I would use more pineapple and cherries, and less dates. I enjoyed when I got a bite of cherry, but most bites were mostly dates. Overall, not a bad flavor and I can imagine it would be much better tweaked. So if you like fruit cake, I think you would like this recipe.

Ingredients:

1 8 oz. package dried apricots (about 2 cups)

1 8oz. package pitted dates (1 1/2 cups)

1 1/2 cups whole Brazil nuts

1 cup drained red and green maraschino cherries

1/3 lb. red and green candied pineapple, cut up (about 1 cup)

3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

3 eggs

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line a loaf pan with aluminum foil, grease the pan.

Leave all the fruit and nuts whole except for the pineapple. The original instructions state to combine all of the ingredients together, which I did. Right after the put in the flour I realized that the dry ingredients should be combined in a small bowl, then added to the fruits.

Pour or spoon the batter into the greased pan.

Bake for 1 hour and 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean. You may want to cover with aluminum foil for the last 30 minutes to prevent excessive browning.

Once the cake is done remove from pan using the aluminum foil, and cool on a wire rack. Cool completely before cutting.