King Arthur Fruitcake: the prep

Hello all, big apologies for being so late on coming back to the blog! Life sometimes has a way of intruding on cyberspace.

The very last fruitcake I sampled at the end of last year was one of my own making, but not completely: I bought the King Arthur fruitcake mix at the end of the season and decided to make my own. This post will detail how it went.

I bought the kit for $21, wow, a bargain, because it was after Christmas. I don't remember what the original price was and they don't have the kit listed on the website right now. I believe it included all three items shown in the photo below (obviously not the super-cute vintage bowl; that's mine):

The kit consisted of the fruitcake mix (for the cake itself). I took a photo of the ingredients but since I am the worst photo taker EVER, it didn't turn out well. The ingredents are flour, sugar, baking powder, molasses, and "natural flavors."

Next is the dried fruit blend, consisting of the ingredients listing below:

Finally, candied cherries, which were of pretty good quality. Here are the ingredients for them:

The recipe called for halving the cherries, then soaking them and the fruit in water or your liquor of choice. Sounds like a good plan!

Since I always seem to like the taste of cognac/brandy in my fruitcakes, I chose to soak in that, as well as a bit of this:

How can that be bad? And indeed it wasn't. So everybody, in the pool! Here's before:

And here's how they looked after their soak:

The smell, of course, was delicious. The rest of the recipe was quite easy: mix the mix with butter, then fruit, I believe there were some eggs in there, well, let's look at the recipe ingredients list:

A bit of light corn syrup in there. I'm not too happy with that but I'm sure it adds texture and probably moisture to the mix. Here are my fruitcakes, before going in the oven:

And here they are after:

The recipe suggested the following:

Since I had 2 cakes, I figured I'd try to soak with a couple different liquors. And because I like my cakes pretty boozy, I decided that in addition to brushing them with liquor, I'd also soak them in cheesecloth soaked in liquor. Can't hurt, might help with the moistness, yes?

Here's what  I chose for each:

Yup, that's top-shelf Blanton's Bourbon on the right. I received that as a bridal shower gift.Come to think of it, the same girlfriend gave me both of these bottles of booze. What does that say about her impressions of me, that she gives me so much booze? That I'm top-shelf, maybe? But of course I'm her friend from COLLEGE, so conclude what you will from that and the gifts. In any case, what a great friend. So here we go! Cheesecloth in the pot:

(These photos are partly here to show some of the super-cute vintage dishware I've picked up from assorted resale shops. This is a good one, I always make cornbread in it).
In goes the booze:

And the cake is enshrouded:

For one nanosecond in my life, the idea of making my own cheese appealed. To that end, I purchased a few items from New England Cheesemaking Supply. The cheese never happened, but the Butter Muslin (read: cheesecloth) I bought from them is an excellent product. It's as sheer as a cheesecloth but the fiber is smoother and stronger. I don't think I can go back to standard grocery-store cheesecloth after using it:

Anyway, the other cake got its Bourbon wrap, then both of them went into plastic bags for an extended rest in my fridge:

A few weeks later I pulled them out and gave them a try. Why don't I save the photos and details of that in another post?

I'm not sure what the fruitcake season ahead of me is looking like. The siren call of Fiona Cairns' Rich Tamarind fruitcake has been haunting me: the taste was that good. Perhaps I'll veer into making my own? If anyone wants me to review specific fruitcakes, please comment here or on my Facebook page.

Review: WHO Women Cranberry Orange Walnut Cake

I am going to have to re-think my fruitcake categories. The "Other" category needs to be redefined a bit. I was recently asked about trends in fruitcake, which I hadn't really thought about before (and shame on me for that). What I came up with in response to that question was the trend of remaking the concept of a fruitcake, normally through rejection of the standard-issue candied fruit. Instead, I'm seeing (or at least being made aware of) more cakes that contain either house-made candied fruit, in the case of the Robert Lambert cakes, or dried fruit, such as the Old Cavendish cake. Perhaps this isn't a trend at all but rather something that's been out there for a while, and I've started to discover it as I surge further into the dense forest of cakes of a fruity nature. Regardless, I think this type of fruitcake deserves a category more defined than "other." I would welcome your recommendations as to what this new category would be. Dried-fruit fruitcakes? Gastronomic fruitcakes? Locavore fruitcakes? New wave fruitcakes? Feel free to comment or jump over to the Facebook page to share your thoughts.

In any case, such a fruitcake is the WHO Women Cranberry Orange Walnut cake. Even by its name can one see that it is not defining itself as a fruitcake. Just as no one names a child Adolf anymore, it seems that the very word "fruitcake" might have negative connotations and so is being avoided. That being said, this is one of those alternative cakes that doesn't strictly evoke the flavor of a traditional fruitcake, either. Several readers had recommended this cake; when I went to their site, I didn't see anything specifically called a "fruitcake" so I contacted their customer service and was told that the Cranberry Orange Walnut was the closest thing.

The one pound cake cost $11.95; they also have 2- and 3- pound cakes. With shipping, the cost was $18.15. Here's what the cake looks like:

No hole. I'm not super keen on that (see my previous post about the importance of the hole), but really, not a huge deal. The ingredients? Fabulous: orange peel, dried cranberries, walnuts, brown sugar, flour, dates, butter, eggs, vanilla, a bit of sodium caseinate (not sure if that's part of another ingredient or added for emulsification/stabilization). What? No cherries, citron, pineapple, you say? Correct--this does not contain the standard trinity of candied fruit.

Here's a shot of the cake, sliced:

Chock-full of all the good stuff. As for the flavor: it's not a standard fruitcake. This cake reminded me of the cranberry-orange quick bread that you may be familiar with, with a bright, citric flavor from the cranberries and orange peel. However it is much denser and has a more intricate flavor due to the walnuts and dates. I'd compare this to the Bien Fait cakes in nature because of the use of dried fruit. Hmmm, maybe that new category I mentioned is dried fruit cakes (rather than candied fruit cakes).

This is a very delicious cake, and could be another good alterna-fruitcake on your holiday table. It might be even more delicious with a discreet dousing of rum or brandy. I'm going to put it up towards the top of the "Other" fruitcakes list, but beware: my rating lists may be evolving soon!