Wendy's Favorite Recipes from www. ClickonCuernavaca.com

 Fruit Cake
 

There are fruit cakes and there are fruit cakes.  Some taste like cardboard with stale fruit.  Others are exceptionally good.  You can not compare this cake to some stale 3 month old cake you buy in the grocery store.  Living in Mexico we have a problem… No candied fruit.  So I experimented and while there is a slight difference in taste.. Using Regular fruit works… This cake using regular fruit is better then anything you can buy in the store.  It will take you about 20 min to ˝ hour to prep the fruit.  Which can even be done the day before or while you are waiting for the raisins to soak.

 First off Soak

1/2 cup Raisins in 1/3 cup rum for a few hours or overnight. 

 Add

1 cup chopped dates
1 1/4 cups candied cherries (I cut them in half)
  You can use the same amount of Bottled Maraschino Cherries*
1 cup chopped Walnuts or Pecans
1/2 cup chopped candied Pineapple (or citron)
  Or ˝ cup of Canned Pineapple Chunks (I cut the chunks in half)  

 Mix together in a different bowl

1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter or Stick Margarine
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk ( 1 tea Lime/lemon juice added to regular milk)
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Prepare two loaf pans, grease the sides and bottom, put a piece of wax paper on the bottom (makes it release easier), then spray with a non stick spray.  Turn the oven on to 275.

Cream Sugar and butter until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs, and add buttermilk. Add the rest of the dry ingredients, mix until moistened. (do not over mix) Add the fruit.  

Bake at 275 for 90 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  Cool in pan 30 minutes and then remove carefully, run a knife around the edges, then remove the paper from the bottom of the loaf.   

This tastes great just like this, but if you want to make it even better.   Prepare the cake a few weeks before you are going to eat it.  Pour a bit of brandy, rum or Cherry Liquor over the cake ( a wee bit ˝ of a shot glass) wrap in plastic wrap and store in the fridge.  Every couple of days take the cake out and pour a wee bit more of the liquor over the cake, rewrap and return to the Fridge. 

This will give you a moist flavorful cake that is unsurpassed.  Really great!!  Biggest problem I have is my friends are now asking me to make fruit cakes for them for Christmas.