Magical Holiday Fruit Cake
I used dried cherries, cranberries, raisins, apricots, pears, prunes, and mangoes in my fruit cake, but choose your favorites to suit your own personal tastes. Be sure to plan ahead and bake at least a week ahead to give the fruit cake time to absorb plenty of bourbon!
Servings: 12
Ingredients
- 2 pounds mixed dried fruit pieces larger than raisins chopped (about 5 cups)
- 1 large orange zested and juiced
- 1 large lemon zested and juiced
- 2/3 cup bourbon plus more for feeding
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 /2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1 1/2 cups sliced almonds
Instructions
- Combine dried fruits, citrus zest and juice, bourbon, butter, and sugar in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Heat until butter melts and the mixture comes to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and let cool at room temperature for about 30 minutes.
- In the meantime, preheat oven to 300º F. Grease and flour a 12-cup bundt pan.
- Add eggs, vanilla, spices, salt, and baking powder to fruit mixture, stirring well to combine.
- Mix in all-purpose flour, almond flour, and almonds, stirring until no pockets of flour remain.
- Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and level the top with a spatula. Bake in the middle of the preheated oven until a tester comes out clean, about 90 minutes.
- Remove the cake from the oven, poke holes in the bottom with a skewer, and spoon 2 tablespoons of bourbon over the cake. Cool the cake in the pan for about 20 minutes before turning it out to cool completely on a rack.
- Once cool, brush the top and sides of the cake with 2 tablespoons bourbon and wrap well with plastic.
- Store well-wrapped at room temperature for several weeks before serving, brushing it every few days with more bourbon.