The Proof is in the Fruitcake
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Missy Shenck’s Great Grandmother Mary Steed Everett (Granny)
circa the 1880s
Granny’s Christmas Fruitcake
By Missy Schenck
Who makes fruitcakes anymore? They weigh 100 pounds and cost $50 to make, yet they are one of those holiday traditions that continue to pass on from generation to generation.
My great grandmother’s recipe haunts our family. It’s not exactly comfort food. You either like it or you don’t. It’s loaded with whiskey and ferments in the basement until it is ripe. The historic Christmas cake is actually edible for up to 25 years after it is made!
It’s a process to make a fruitcake. It takes weeks rather than hours for the results. My mother always began about a month before Christmas. When the ingredients hit the stores, she would gather her resources and set aside an entire day to prepare the cake. Packed with candied fruit and plenty of pecans gathered from our yard, once cooked, Mama would wrap the cake in cheesecloth soaked in whiskey and store it in the basement. Each week, she would open the container and give the cake a good splash and close it up again.
There are two kinds of fruitcakes – dark or light. Granny’s recipe was for a dark fruitcake and is the kind I prefer to eat. Her fruitcake bowl approximately 150+ years old has passed down along with her recipe and now resides at my house.
A large brown pottery bowl with a lid, the vessel serves as both a container for making the fruitcake and as a storage unit while fermenting. Over the years Granny’s recipe was adapted for cooking in a modern stove as opposed to a wood stove. Her measurements call for a teacup or a large coffee cup of ingredients – your guess is as good as mine.
Fruitcakes mark the beginning of the holiday season that is accompanied by traditions and family. It is a popular holiday gift that most of us dread receiving. While fruitcake has gotten a bad reputation over the years, it dates back to a food enjoyed by ancient Romans called satura – a mix of barley, pomegranate seeds, nuts, and raisins held together with honey. The American version of the cake comes from a long line of British holiday and wedding celebrations when the cake was called Christmas cake or plum cake.
Christmas is a time of year that is good for the human spirit. This year, everyone could use a dose of something special. Cooking and baking conjure up a plethora of memories that do the heart good – so, pull out those recipes and look for the happiness you felt as a child at Christmas.
It’s still there – the proof is in the fruitcake.
Granny’s Dark Fruitcake
Mary Steed Everett – circa the 1880s
Ingredients
18 Eggs
1½ lbs. flour
1½ lbs. sugar
1½ lbs. butter
2 lbs. raisins
2 lbs. currents
1 ½ lbs. citron
2 nutmegs
2 lbs. pecans weighed in shell
2 tablespoons mace
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 small teaspoon cloves
1 small teaspoon sat
2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar in 1 teacup of milk
2 wine glasses of wine
1 wine glass of brandy
Notes from Granny: The spices and currents in it are important and each gives a special flavor. Make dark fruitcakes just before Thanksgiving. Later white fruit cakes and nut cakes are made to have in the house for Christmas. Fruit cakes are also the traditional wedding cake with icing added to them.
No mixing or baking cooking instructions were included with this recipe. All baking was done in a wood-fired oven.
Katharine Steed Everett McDonald
(Grandma)
Grandma’s Dark Fruitcake
Katharine Steed Everett McDonald (Mary’s daughter) 1900’s
Revised from Granny Everett’s recipe and adapted for an electric oven.
Ingredients
12 eggs
1 lb. of butter
2 cups of sugar
4 cups of flour
Spices: 1 teaspoon each of nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, ginger
Fruit:
1 lb. seedless raisins (red box) – buy double the amount for children to snack on
1 lb. seeded raisins (blue box)
1 lb. currants
1 lb. citron
1 lb. shelled pecans
1 glass of wine
1 glass of brandy or whiskey
The day before mixing go overseeded raisins and remove any seeds. Wash currants. Cut up citron and break nuts into smaller pieces. Put all fruit on a cookie sheet and sift 1 cup of reserved flour on them. Mix spices in 3 cups of flour. Cream butter and sugar and proceed as in pound cake – one egg at a time. Add liquid. Mix fruit in, preferably by hand. The pans should be greased and lined with brown paper. Pour into one large tube pan or 3 small loaf pans. Bake at 275 for 4 hours for big ones and 3 hours for smaller ones. The oven should have a pan of water on the lower shelf for the first 2 or 3 hours.
Missy Craver Izard Schenk resides in Flat Rock, North Carolina with her husband, Sandy Schenck, where their family runs Green River Preserve summer camp. Missy is a frequent contributor of articles for The Charleston Mercury.
