If you’ve been down to the basement of St. Lawrence market in the past few weeks you will probably have see the impressive array of candied peel and glacé fruit at Domino Foods. I hate to brag, but I baked my traditional family fruitcake over a month ago when this fruit first appeared, so my cake has had lots of time to mellow and soak up the rummy goodness. It’s made from the usual suspects: candied lemon, orange, and citron peel (citron is a fragrant citrus fruit prized for its skin), chopped glacé cherries and pineapple, nuts, currants and raisins. (Lexia raisins are my favourite – they are large, dark, sticky almost prune-flavoured raisins that lend a wonderful richness to fruitcake and plum pudding. If you use them, always check for seeds. They can be hard to find, but Peter’s Natural Health Foods, the bulk store on the market’s main floor, has them.) And course, a liberal dose of rum.

The staying power of fruitcake comes from its high sugar content – dried sweet raisins and other fruits that have been crystallized or glacéed (preserved in sugar syrup.) A good fruit cake with aging potential is about 50/50 cake batter to fruit and nuts. This fruit (along with the rum) also accounts for the cake’s extreme weight (mine’s just shy of 10 lbs!) And the longer you let it rest after baking, the more the various components will meld and develop a rich, plumy aroma and flavour with a hint of spice. We will be sampling this cake on Saturday December 17th in the Market Kitchen (the north-west corner of the south market, on the mezzanine floor) – so come and taste it for yourself. It goes particularly well with a slice of five year old Canadian Cheddar.

Working in the market, surrounded by great food makes it easy to plan a month ahead. But if you are a fruitcake lover who just realized that there is only one week until Christmas, don’t worry – there’s still time to bake one. This light fruitcake recipe (below) doesn’t have the staying power of my dark fruitcake (it’s best eaten within a week) but still has lots of fruitcake character. And, the lower proportion of raisins, etc. to white cake batter makes it more palatable to many people who are not big fruitcake fans. One final note – despite what people say, don’t be afraid to give fruitcake as a gift. People who love it look forward to it every year – and good, homemade fruitcake is rare and special holiday treat. Enjoy!

Gabrielle

LAST MINUTE (LIGHT) FRUITCAKE
*I sometimes top this with a layer of marzipan. Brush the top of the cake lightly with melted apricot jam and a dash of brandy first.

Candied Fruit:
2 cups sultana raisins, and/or golden raisins
1/2 cup candied citron
1/2 cup candied lemon peel
1/2 cup candied orange peel
1/2 cup coarsely chopped glacé pineapple
1/4 cup red glacé cherries
1/4 cup chopped dried apricots
2/3 cup blanched slivered almonds
2/3 cup unsweetened desiccated coconut
1/4 cup brandy, (approx)

Cake Batter:
3/4 cup soft unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 eggs
1/3 cup warm water
2 cups sifted cake-and-pastry flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground mace or nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt

Method:
Candied Fruit: In large bowl, combine raisins, citron, lemon and orange peels, pineapple, cherries, apricots, almonds and coconut. Add brandy, tossing well to combine. Cover and let stand for 24 hours, stirring occasionally.

Cake Batter: Beat butter with sugar until fluffy; beat in almond extract. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time flowed by the water. In separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, mace and salt; stir into butter mixture. Stir in fruit, scraping in all liquid. Scrape into double-thickness parchment paper–lined 8-inch fruitcake pan or 9-inch springform pan, smoothing top.

Place a shallow pan of water on bottom rack of oven. Bake cake on centre rack of 275°F oven for 3 hours or until tester inserted in centre comes out clean (cover with foil during last 30 minutes to prevent overbrowning). Let cool in pan on rack. When cool, remove cake from pan and peel off parchment paper. Using skewer, poke holes in top; brush with brandy. Wrap in plastic and eat within one week.

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