I am one of the very few who enjoy fruit cake at Christmas. I suppose this love came to me by way of my father. Dad liked food and except for hot dogs, I can't think of anything that he didn't like to eat. He didn't cook much though, like most men of his generation. I never saw him bake anything. Mom was the baker and the cook. Mom made a raw apple fruit cake at Christmas.
I remember once asking about the raw apple fruit cake origins. The recipe was scribbled on a piece torn from lined notebook paper. It was sketchy, not very detailed. The story as I recall is that my dad and his best friend Elmo cooked up this recipe one Christmas back the in the 1930s or 40s. Mom inherited making it after she married Dad in 1948.
At 99 my mom is not the most reliable in asking for recipes or stories. She makes up what she can't remember. She is remarkable for her age, but there is no way I could get this recipe explained by her. I looked it up online and it appears that apple fruit cakes are English. Dad spent WWII in England so his making this recipe makes sense.
This year I decided to make the raw apple fruit cake and send some to my mom. It was my first attempt and I already have some ideas for changes in the next batch. I will include here the basic recipe and my interpretations. I baked it and it turned out beautifully, so I can vouch for it.
Raw Apple Fruit Cake
3 cups peeled chopped apples (it was about 5 or 6 apples altogether)
1 cup raisins (I might do half light, half dark raisins next time)
1 cup chopped dates
1 cup chopped nut meats (I used black walnuts, because that is what I had, but regular walnuts might be better, or pecans. I would not use peanuts)
2 Tablespoons butter
3 eggs
1 teaspoon cinnamon (I think next time I will add another spice like some nutmeg as well. The recipe doesn't call for vanilla, but I added some anyway.)
(I added a half teaspoon of salt which was not in the recipe. I think it needs salt and next time I will add 1 teaspoon salt)
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
6 Tablespoons boiling water
There were very few directions for this recipe. One of the only things written is--Add baking soda to boiling water. I can see no sense in this, so I added the boiling water to the dried fruit. I concluded that the recipe needs the water, but it is as if yeast were confused with baking soda.)
My Directions
1.) Cream butter, sugar, eggs.
2.) Stir in flour, spices, salt and baking soda
3.) Add the boiling water to the raisins and dates. Soak for a short time. Mix all the fruit into the flour mixture.
4.) Put in a circular pan with a hole in the center, like a bundt pan or angel food cake pan or I had a spring form pan that my mother used. I put some fruit cake cherries on top before I baked it. I might change how I added those next time.
5.) Preheat oven to 300 to 325 degrees. Bake at this temperature until the cake rises. That is what the recipe says. I baked it 30 minutes at that temperature. Then turn the oven down to 250 degrees and continue baking for a hour and a half.
6.) It is better aged at least a few days. Cover with wax paper according to the original recipe.
I would definitely add the salt. I may try playing around with it by adding more butter and a little less sugar. I am considering which spices might improve the flavor. But, there you have it, fruit cake for Christmas. I am thankful to have Mom's old recipes and to have something that was handed down from my dad who passed away in 1982 to share this Christmas.
