Carolina Wild Fruitcake

We have been stuck in that holiday swamp! 

As you know, we are big proponents of the fruitcake.  Now every year, we think about doing our fruitcake post in September or October giving everyone a fair chance at actually making a fruitcake while giving it time to mellow.  But we never do.

This year, we have been reading on the Internet about an Australian fruitcake made with a scant three ingredients. The Internet has also given us alien autopsies and a chubacabra or two, so we were skeptical.

One day while exploring various drawers and shelves in and around the kitchen, we found a box of raisins that seemed to be full.  Upon opening it was clear this box had been the resting place of countless bags of dregs from the baking world.  The were about two tablespoons of currents, half a cup of shriveled sultanas, mealy raisins, and something else that at one time had been a dried fruit.  Not wanting to toss out perfectly good, if less than perfect dried fruit, an experiment was in order. 

Australian 3 Ingredient Fruitcake

1 kilogram dried fruit
2 cups juice
2 cups self-raising flour

Armed with my Australian recipe (above), we set out to make the three ingredient fruitcake.  Much to my wondering eyes...the cake was pretty and good!  Not to mention, way easy...easier than any other fruitcake ever made.

So we stocked up on really nice fruit and set off to make the recipe our own. 

Now we just love Carolina Wild Muscadine Juice.  It seemed like a natural.  Since there is only 12 ounces of juice we made up the additional four ounces with rum.  Two pounds of fruit is a bit less than the kilo in the Aussie recipe.  We used a mix of raisins and fruitcake mix. We also used some extra rum to doctor the cakes while warm.  After it cooled completely, we removed the paper, wrapped it in rum-laced cheesecloth and cling film.  The recipe makes one large cake like Lucinda's Wood Baking Box, or a 9-inch springform pan, or two loaf pans, or several smaller loaves for gifting.  (Remember, with less volume, you need to decrease the baking time.) Here is the recipe for our ...

Carolina Wild Fruitcake

1 pound mixed raisins
1 pound glace peel
1 bottle Carolina Wild
4 ounces white rum
2 cups self-rising flour
Extra rum for "doctoring"  (optional)

Soak the raisins and peel in the Carolina Wild and rum overnight.

Pre-heat oven to 300F.

Line 2 loaf pans with parchment or brown paper.  Spray with oil. Set on a baking tray.

Mix the flour into the juice and fruit.

Spoon into prepared baking pans and bake for about 90 minutes.

Remove from oven and brush with additional rum while warm.

 But wait...there is more. 

My goddaughter has been having an awful time with gluten.  Even rice flours have been giving her fits, so we have been experimenting with sweet potato flour.  It is quite dense and often overpowers baking, but it seemed a fine match for fruitcake.  For our gluten free cake, we kept with the lighter color scheme -- yes, baked goods can have a color scheme!  We used sultanas and a mix of lemon, orange and citron for the fruit.  We needed to leaven the flour so we used our own homemade baking powder (cream of tarter and baking soda) but you can buy gluten-free baking powder.  As for "doctoring" the cake, one tends to forget that many spirits, like bourbon are make from grainy products.  We did doctor this with some lemoncello made with a potato vodka.

Gluten-Free Sweet Potato Fruitcake

1 pound sultanas or golden raisins
1 pound mixed citrus peel
2 cups apple juice
scant 2 cups sweet potato flour
2 teaspoons gluten-free baking powder

Soak the raisins and peel in juice overnight.

Pre-heat oven to 300F.

Line 2 loaf pans with parchment or brown paper.  Spray with oil. Set on a baking tray.

Mix the flour and baking powder into the juice and fruit.

Spoon into prepared baking pans and bake for about 90 minutes.

Soak the raisins and peel in the Carolina Wild and rum overnight.

Pre-heat oven to 300F.

Line 2 loaf pans with parchment or brown paper.  Spray with oil. Set on a baking tray.

Mix the flour into the juice and fruit.

Spoon into prepared baking pans and bake for about 90 minutes.

Remove from oven and brush with additional juice or acceptable spirit while warm.

There is still time to make one and have warm fruitcake for Christmas.

 Even the fruitcake haters loved these loaves. 

 And... we hear that chubacabras are fond of them, too.