Just for fun...first Fruitcake Festival in Monroeville, AL this weekend...

M

marianne

Well-known member
to celebrate Truman Capote and the holiday dessert immortalized in his enduring holiday classic, "A Christmas Memory". The festival includes fruitcake sales and auctions, recipe exchanges, Capote-related Christmas gifts and even a fuitcake toss on the Courthouse lawn.

Truman spent his youth in Monroeville, and palled around with Harper Lee. A friend of mine, Virginia McDuffie Hybart Taylor, knew them both when they were all young. Check out the Hybart House in the link to the Monroe County Museum below, where Virginia was born and raised.

The local residents perform the play "To Kill a Mockingbird" every Spring, with the first act performed on the Courthouse lawn, and the second act in the Courtroom inside the Courthouse. It's a unique performance.

Academy Award-winning actress Patricia Neal and Broadway actor Joel Vig will present a dramatic reading of "A Christmas Memory" on Friday evening, in the courtroom, and I have tickets to attend. A fruitcake reception with the actors will follow. It should be fun.

I used to make a wonderful fruitcake, Nova Scotia Black Fruitcake from Craig Claiborne's New York Times Cook Book. Does any one bother to make them now?

Nan, see what you started? Best regards to all.

http://tokillamockingbird.com/index.htm

 
Sounds like a lovely town, very cool history. I do make fruitcake, the one have posted before

here. Roni posted it on the old Gourmet Forum I like it because there is no neon fruit. Haven't baked for a few years. Think I do a couple Thanksgiving weekend--
think it was originally posted in Boston Globe?
An excellent alternative -
Re: (Hetta Malone)

FRUIT AND SPICE CAKE Butter (for the pan) Flour (for dusting)
1/2 pound dried apricots,coarsely chopped
1/2 pound pitted dates, coarsely chopped
1/4 pound dried cranberries
3/4 pound golden raisins
1/4 pound unblanched almonds, chopped
1/4 pound walnuts, chopped
1/4 pound pecans, chopped
1/2 cup crystallized ginger
Grated rind of 2 oranges
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
6 eggs
Juice of 1 orange
Juice of 1 lemon
1/3 cup rum
Set the oven at 300 degrees.
Butter a 10-inch tube pan. Line the bottom with a piece of parchment paper cut to fit it exactly. Butter the paper and dust the pan with flour, tapping out the excess.
In a bowl, combine the apricots, dates, cranberries, raisins, almonds, walnuts, pecans, ginger, and orange rind. Add 1/4 cup of the flour and toss to coat the fruits and nuts; set them aside.
In a separate bowl, sift the remaining 1 3/4 cups flour with the baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. Set aside. In an electric mixer, cream the butter. Add the granulated and brown sugars. Beat over medium speed for 2 minutes, scraping down the bowl several times. Add the eggs one by one, beating well after each addition. Beat in the orange and lemon juice, followed by the rum. With the mixer set on its lowest speed, beat in the flour just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Remove the bowl from the mixer stand. With a wooden spoon, mix in the fruit and nuts until no traces of flour show. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake the cake for 2 1/2 hours or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and set it aside on a metal rack for 30 minutes. Use a sharp knife to cut around the outside rim of the cake to release it from the pan. Lift out the cake on the center tube. Turn the cake upside down onto a plate, remove the tube. Then turn the cake right side up onto the rack to cool completely. To serve, cut into thick slices. MAKES 1 TALL 10-INCH CAKE

This one I've also used the oversize loaf pan

I have varied the fuits too, sometime used dry cherries or pineapple or figs. Just measure so it the same total amount. Same with nuts.

Nan

 
Does sound like a lovely weekend! Will you get to attend?

I love fruitcake but am partial to the one from Corsicana, Texas. (World's Best, I think is the name) All pecans and fruit - nearly a confection. It's lovely.

 
I can't that that cookbook or the recipe anywhere, do you still have it? sounds interesting, thanks

 
Hi Marianne, that sounds like a fun festival!

would love to attend all those events. And yes, still make fruitcake at our house. We age them down in the basement, douse them periodically with cognac, and keep them several years before we tuck into them. They just keep getting better and better. Managed to keep one for 7 years that was like a serving of cherry brandy on a plate.

 
My DH's favourite fruit cake. I usually double recipe and have

saved one and served it at Easter. Wonderful. Takes 1 quart of fairly good quality cognac.

Fruit Cake, Dark


2-1/2 cups mixed, diced candied fruits
1-1/2 cups thinly sliced candied pineapple
1 cup light sultana raisins
1 cup thick fruit preserves (Cherry jam with whole cherries in it, best)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups currents
1-1/2 cups black sultana raisins
1/2 cup cognac
1 cup filberts, coarsely chopped, or more
1 cup pecans, coarsely chopped,or more
6 eggs
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup butter
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cloves, optional
1 teaspoon cinnamon

The night before you bake the fruit cake, combine all the fruit, fruit preserves, vanilla and cognac in a large bowl. (Can marinate longer - even 1 week)
The following morning, grease and lightly flour three 9x5x3 loaf pans. Set oven at 300 degrees. Add nuts to bowl containing fruit.
Cream butter, flour and spices together until light.
Beat eggs and sugar together until thick and fluffy. Stir beaten eggs thoroughly into creamed butter-flour mixture.
Pour batter over fruits and nuts. With hands, mix together gently but quickly.

Fill prepared pans 2/3 full. Pat batter down firmly.

Cover each pan with a sheet of aluminum foil, sealing the batter in.
Bake cakes in preheated oven for 2 hours. Remove aluminum foil covers. Bake about 40 minutes longer, or until tops of cakes are browned.
When cakes are completely cooled, turn them out of pans. Top with apple slices. Wrap each in a cognac-soaked cloth, then in aluminum foil. Store in an airtight box for at least 2 weeks before serving.

To Blanch Filberts - put nuts on cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about l0 minutes. Cool slightly. Rub nuts in a towel and between hands to remove the flakey brown skin.

I check cakes after a few days (apples and cloths dry out quickly at first.) I stop adding apple slices once the cakes get moist, but continue cognac cloths to keep it preserved.

 
Yes, GayR, this is the correct recipe, with one small change...

the cookbook calls for 1/2 cup of butter, not 1/4 cup. You need to let the cake ripen for a month, and soak liberally with rum or brandy. I never bothered with the icings. The cake was too good just by itself. A very dear old friend from New York, Barbara Zalaznick Dobbin, introduced me to this delicious cake, and they make great Holiday gifts. Apologies to Nan for the neon fruit!

 
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