Fruitcake

 Fruit Cake 

300°F

2 hours 

• 15oz sweetened condensed milk 
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 2 8oz jar mincemeat
• 16oz jar mixed fruit
• 1 cup walnuts
• 1-1/2 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking soda

1- In a large bowl, mix milk, eggs, mincemeat, fruit, and walnuts

2- In a second bowl mix flour and baking soda

3- Add dry ingredients into fruit mix and mix well

4- Use angel food cake pan, cut parchment paper to cover bottom of pan. Spray the bottom and sides of pan with cooking spray and add parchment paper. Spray again to ensure there is oil covering both sides of the parchment paper

5- Pour mix into pan and bake at 300°F for 2 hours

Before I even get into this recipe, let me lay a few things on the table.

1- I am a fruitcake hater. 

2- I just read the entire Wiki page on Fruitcake and it is dense (haha) with fascinating information

3- I sadly did not get a picture of the fruitcake sliced, so manage your expectations right now. 

Growing up, I remember my grandma Sue making my dad fruitcake every year. I was talking to my mom back in November, and telling her I was thinking about braving this recipe just for my dad because it would be his first Christmas without my grandma here to make one. She said he would love that! Naturally, I was excited to try something new, and of course I love baking for my family. I think my mom said my grandma would only make one fruitcake every year, and she would split it up between the few people who would actually eat it. My parents said some years my grandma would soak it in rum; although I did not do that simply because I don’t keep rum on hand. 

In my quest to try to get these recipes as close to my grandma’s as possible, I had to buy an angel food cake pan. A fact I am rather excited about, I must say. The recipe says to cover the bottom of the pan in parchment paper. If you didn’t know, parchment paper means PARCHMENT PAPER. Do NOT use wax paper. Wax paper and parchment paper are not the same, and wax paper will catch on fire in your oven. Parchment paper is heat resistant, wax paper is not. I originally forgot to buy parchment paper, and had resolved to just make the fruitcake with cooking spray and a prayer, but in a happy accident I had to run to Dollar Tree for a bigger storage container when I made the peanut butter blossom cookies; and low and behold, Dollar Tree sells parchment paper!

I took the easy way out, and simply used a pencil to trace around the insert of the pan to cut out a lining. However, in culinary school, we were taught to fold the paper into a cone shape and hold it up to the pan (like the picture above) with the point of the cone in the very center of the pan. Using this as a guide, you can cut the edges and the center if needed; which should give you a perfectly sized circle. Whatever you chose to do is good with me, babes. I won’t yell at ya. 

Next was just spraying the pan, adding the parchment paper circle, and spraying again to ensure both sides of the parchment paper are coated in cooking spray. Then I set the pan to the side. 

Alright, so let’s talk about mincemeat. I am going to be so real with you, this part had me confused as hell. Truthfully, the only thing I knew about mincemeat was that it used to be made with actual meat, and nowadays we make it with fruit. That’s it, that’s all I knew. I didn’t know what was actually in it, what it looked like, or what it smelled like. But I did know that fruitcake usually has little colorful fruit bits in it. So I thought that when the recipe said “two 8oz jars of mincemeat” it meant the colorful bits (see picture of Fruit Cake Mix) and the “16oz jar mixed fruit” was the chunks of peaches, pears, and cherries in syrup we used to get in school lunch. 

As it turns out, I was wrong. (This is painful to admit, just so you know. Don’t tell my husband, as far as he knows I am never wrong) 

After a much length discussion with my aunt, and a very confused FaceTime call in the middle of Walmart, it turns out the Mincemeat we can only get at the ol’ Kroger in our town. And the “mixed fruit” is the fruitcake mix. So, if you plan to make this, take a good gander at the pictures so you know what you’re looking for. 

Unfortunately for me, this is one of those recipes where nothing uses the full container. If you’re thinking “Kinzy, what are you going to do with the leftover fruit cake mix, mincemeat, and sweetened condensed milk?” the answer is SHUT UP, I DON’T KNOW. 

I started by measuring the sweetened condensed milk by weight, the cans came in 14oz, so there was a lot left over. It ended up measuring just under 1-1/2 cups. 

I cracked open the fruitcake mix, and measured it by weight. Then I cracked open the jars of mincemeat, which to my horror smelled absolutely foul; making me question all of my life choices. I can’t even describe what it smelled like. I read the ingredients, which helped me understand nothing. Just vague ingredients like vine fruits and spices. I bravely tried the tiniest bite (do it for the blog, am I right?) and it tasted EXACTLY like it smelled. The problem is, I can’t even tell you what it smelled like, so I can’t give you any explanation of what it tasted like. It was gross. I did not like it. I will not be trying it again. That’s all I can give you. 

Once the ingredients were measured, I measured and chopped the walnuts. I did courser pieces, as fruitcake is usually pretty chunky. Then I got to mixing. I added the eggs, sweetened condensed milk, mincemeat and fruit cake mix into the mixer and let it combine for a minute or two before adding in the walnuts. After that, I added the flour and baking soda mixture and mixed until everything was fully combined.

As far as actually mixing and baking, I think the entire process was super easy. I would absolutely make this for my dad every year (and apparently my brother-in-law, who said it was delicious!) The only road blocks were figuring out the right ingredients, and of course the god awful mincemeat smell. 

I ended up buying a tiny disposable loaf pan and pouring some of the batter into it. While discussing this recipe with my aunt, she said grandma would always give her a small piece, because that’s all she could eat. So I made her a tiny little fruitcake for her to enjoy over the holidays. 

The only difference I noticed with this recipe was that it did not take 2 hours for the fruitcake to cook through. I had originally set a 1 hour timer to come back and check on it, and it was almost done by the 1 hour mark. I came back 15 minutes later, and a cake tester inserted in the middle came out clean. While I find this recipe particularly foul, I enjoyed learning about new ingredients and of course seeing the fruits of my labor. (The jokes will never stop)