hi I'm Stephanie Gosk of joy baking calm
today we're going to make a fruitcake
and this is what it looks like this cake
is just loaded with nuts and candied
fruit and dried fruit and really just
enough cake batter to hold everything
together so the first thing you need to
do is to pre-heat your oven to 325
degrees Fahrenheit which is 160 degrees
Celsius and then we will need an 8-inch
20 centimeter springform pan get the two
pieces here with the clamp so you just
put that one clamp that down and then I
am going to butter my pan both the
bottom and the sides and what I've done
is just i melted just a little butter
and then I've got a pastry brush I find
it much easier to do it that way then
taking like a real like a hunk of butter
and then rubbing it makes it a little
quicker to do it this way so then just
make sure you got everything well
greased here and then what we want to do
is to line the bottom so I just have a
round here put that there this is going
to make it much easier for us to unmold
our cake when we're done and then what
I've done is taking a long strip of
parchment paper and this what you want
to do I think this is about three inches
which is one seven and a half centimeter
sides so you want to cut your parchment
paper to go a little like maybe an inch
or so maybe I go two inches above the
rim so you know maybe four or five
centimeters up like so
and then just mine's a little wise I'm
gonna butter that and see if you butter
your pan really parchment or really
stick okay so that's so as you can see
here a fruitcake has so many ingredients
so what I like to do just so I don't
forget anything is to do what I would do
at home is to do what I've done here and
lay get everything done before you
actually start making your fruitcake
so if you have an electric stand mixer
like I have here use your paddle
attachment or you could use a hand mixer
or really you could just large bowl
wooden spoon the first ingredient you
will need is one cup 225 grams of butter
I like the unsalted I prefer the flavor
you could use salted here as well either
one just leave if you're using salted
butter as always just leave out the salt
this called for in the recipe now first
I'm just going to beat this the butter
just until it gets nice and smooth
and whenever you're making any kind of
batter make sure you scrape down the
sides and your the bottom of your bowl
as much as you need to make sure
everything gets mixed together so the
next ingredient is one cup 210 grams of
firmly packed light brown sugar let's
dump that in there and then I'm going to
beat this on medium-high speed probably
two three minutes we want to get some
air in the batter in the within these
two ingredients so maybe two three
minutes on medium high speed okay that
looks good as you can see we're just
looking to get them all nicely creamed
together with some air next you will
need three large eggs that would be 165
grams Oh to the shell and have your eggs
at room temperature and I'm going to add
them one at a time because they mix in
better if I do it one at a time so I'm
going to beat that in then add the next
one at the next one
and then just scrape this down sure
everything's mixed in if you there's a
lot of liquid you get the fat the butter
and then all these eggs so you know your
batter if it curdles don't worry about
it that's very normal here I'm just
going to beat this just for a second
more okay because once we add our dry
ingredients if there's curdling that
will just smooth right out so now I'm
next we are making a traditional
fruitcake which means it has some booze
alcohol both in the cake and then we're
going to brush the outside of the cake
so I am now adding 3 tablespoons 35
grams now you can use there's various
choices I'm using Grand Marnier Kyle Ike
that orange flavor you could use just a
con yak you could use the sherry you
could use a rum probably whiskey you
know whatever you like and have in the
house and then also what you will need
is the the zest which is the outside
skin plus the juice of one orange which
I've already done that so I have now
always when you're doing this washer
your fruit first and then I've used like
a microplane you could use a box grater
to get your zest
and then cut it in half and squeeze the
juice for reference purposes I mean
really we're just doing this for a
little flavor this is about a quarter of
a cup 60 grams of orange juice and then
we also are going to do just get the
zest of one large one lemon again wash
your lemon first and
and get the zest you know adding a
little bit of citrus juice and the zest
really kind of perks up all the flavors
in your cake so there we go and I'm just
going to beat that in
like I said you're going to have some
major curdling of your batter here with
all that liquid but we will remedy that
in a moment so in a separate Bowl I have
two cups 260 grams of all-purpose flour
you may know that is plain flour and I'm
also going to add to this 3/4 of a cup
75 grams of ground almonds now these
ones I just bought you know you can buy
bags of ground almonds I find and that
your grocery store a lot of times now it
is there on the baking aisle or in the
health food section or what you can do
is just take some almonds and put them
in your food processor and just process
them until they're finely ground just be
careful you don't overdo it and then you
end up with a paste and then also I'm
adding 1 teaspoon 4 grams of baking
powder and then 1/4 of a teaspoon or no
half a teaspoon 2 grams of salt I'm just
going to whisk that together and then
the most important part is the nuts and
our fruit that's what a fruitcake is all
about so you will need um two and a
quarter pounds which is one kilogram of
a variety of can or a dried and candied
fruit really this is up to you you can
you there's use the fruits that you like
and that you can find I'm going to tell
you just kind of what I have here I'm
using a combination of the dark raisins
golden raisins and I'm kind of using
both equal weight of each of these I'm
using some dried I have here both dried
cranberries and dried cherries and then
I have some dried figs and I've cut them
you know kind of coarsely chop them up
always when you're cutting figs make
sure you take off that there's a little
end on it cut that off and then cut them
up prunes you
times I use a combination of figs and
prunes and you know so another idea is
like apricots or mango because as a
bright nice orange color that kind of
pop makes it kind of pops in your
fruitcake so you know that's another
thing I'm also using because I really
like them the candied cherries I like
the color and I I do like candy chariots
what can I say
and then I'm also using the candied
mixed peel that you can buy and just as
a side note here you know a lot of times
your your candied fruit you can only
kind of find around the holiday season
so what I do is I usually buy extra
sometimes I wait till after Christmas
when it goes on sale and just pick up a
few extra so I can make if I want to
make fruitcake or other things during
the rest of the year and we need some
chopped nuts you will need 1 cup 100
grams of chopped nuts I'm using almonds
since I kind of go oh I got the ground
almonds so keep the almond thing going
on but you could use walnuts pecans
hazelnuts or kind of a combination so
what I'm going to do is I'm just going
to dump all of these now because at home
you really don't have to put in separate
like I've done I just wanted to show you
the right you could just dump when
you're measuring out your two and a
quarter cups a two and a quarter pound
sorry or one kilogram just put it in a
large bowl you can see this is a a lot
of fruit here
and now because some of the especially
your dried fruits kind of stick together
so what I do at this point is I just
take I mean just take a couple big
spoonfuls of my flour and then I just
kind of toss one because you know like
your raisins and stuff like in their
dried cranberries and cherries they tend
to like kind of stick together so the
flour I'm going to actually I get my
hands in there to kind of separate them
so you don't get like clumps and your
fruitcake so as you can see this is not
difficult it's I find the most work to
me is just getting everything measured
out that part and cut up and all that
kind of stuff but the actual batter is
fairly easy to make so my hands here now
I'm going to add all of this so as you
can see that's a lot of fruit and nuts
sure you get all the flour and then I'm
going to slowly mix this in if you want
to you can do it just by hand or I'm
going to try to use my feeder here
okay as you can see no we can see it's
all it's amazing how it all mix straight
in there so now all that's left is our
flour mixture and just slowly clicks a
tin
and we're done as you can see it I mean
really it's the time is assembling all
your ingredients now just going to share
all that flour oh great so that's put in
here now as you know well if you've ever
made this kind of fruitcake we are going
to once it's we finish baking it and
cooling it we're going to brush the
outside with alcohol and we have to feed
this brush it like over I'd say at least
a couple weeks to three weeks
you know once or twice a week you brush
take your fresh the cake with alcohol so
this is a cake that if you're making it
for Christmas is when you know most
people want it so you know you won
started you know at least I'd say two
three weeks before so maybe you know the
beginning of December so this is a do a
head which is great because we're busy
during the holiday season and if we if
we can do something ahead of time all
the better and that's and then this cake
you can freeze it you can keep it
because we are going to brush it with a
lot of alcohol tax it not only does it
give it the your cake a lot of flavor it
preserves it so it's a really cake that
you can freeze or keep you know in a
cool place for several months so now I'm
just going to press this down as you
could as you saw it was a very thick
batter now you can them if you want at
this point you can decorate the top with
some you know nuts almonds or pecans or
you know walnuts if you want to do that
or a lot of people what they like
to do is once they're ready to serve the
cake they decorate it then with maybe
you know some candied cherries and some
toasted nuts and then just use some jam
apricot preserves or something as a glue
so either way or you could just skip
that and just enjoy the cake as is which
is typically a lot of times that's what
I do so just make sure this is all pad
axis is really it you salt really thick
batter okay so I'm happy with that and
then like I said you could take another
hopefully you can see over the parchment
you can just take some almonds and just
press it into the top you know the way
you want if you want to do that which we
will so now this cake because we have a
lot of fruit and nuts it takes quite a
while to bake we are going to bake it at
325 or the 160 for one hour then you're
going to turn your heat down to 300
that's 150 C and we're going to bake it
for an additional I'd say 80 to 90
minutes so it's going to and you're
looking it's going to turn nice and
brown and then when the you take a
skewer or toothpick and put it in you
will get like a few moist crumbs coming
out if you find your it really over
Browns and you don't like that you could
put some foil over the top and as always
everyone's oven is a little different
sometimes your oven can run a little hot
so check it you know check it what
before if I say 80 minutes check it
maybe at 70 minutes at that final 70
minute because we don't want to over
bake it so one hour and then turn your
oven down to 350 150 and then another 80
to 90
minutes
okay so our fruitcake is now big doesn't
that look gorgeous
ah toothpick inserted in the center just
came out with a little bit of moist
crumbs so now I put it on a wire rack
and I'm just going to let it cool and
then when we come back we will brush it
with some alcohol so now our cake has
cooled down I take off the ring and peel
back the paper and then I find I can
just lift it right off that plate and
then it's still a little warm but I like
to brush it with the alcohol while it's
still a little warm this time so now I'm
just taking you can just take a
toothpick or some kind of skewer and
just poke some holes all over the tongue
help that alcohol get in and I usually
just around the sides and then because I
put Grand Marnier in my cake I'm going
to actually brush it with some Grand
Marnier again you could use brandy con
yak a sherry rum whiskey and just put a
nice coating now what you're going to do
is we're going to do this and then I'm
going to let it finish cooling then I'm
going to wrap it in plastic wrap and
foil and if you have like a cake tin you
could put it in your cake tin and we
want to store it you like I said I find
two three weeks and then take it out you
know a couple times a week and just
again brush it with whatever alcohol
you're using and then you'll have a
wonderful flavored fruitcake and like I
said the alcohol acts as a preservative
now if you live in a cooler like you
want to store
this cake once you cover it and store it
in a cool dry place of course if you're
in a colder climate you can just maybe
put it in your basement or something
like that because I live in a very warm
climate I like to I store it in the
fridge and then just take it out you
know a couple times a week and brush it
and then after that time you will have a
wonderful tasting fruit cake like I said
you can store for several months or you
can freeze it
I find least a year you can freeze it
which is nice because I need all year
you can just take out so I'm going to
try it this one I made probably about
three weeks ago so I would have it ready
to try and as you can see it gets
because I keep brushing it with alcohol
over the weeks it gets much darker in
color so you don't worry if you you're
still zap oh I know fruitcakes one of
those things either love it or you hate
it I personally love it I'm so moist so
flavorful you've got all those fruit all
the dried and candy fruit and the nut
and then I find the alcohol flavor it
adds moisture and add but it's not as
strong really like alcohol flavor just
very nice orange mmm very nice so try it
and until next time I'm Stephanie
Jaworski of joy baking calm