Easy Fruitcake Recipe - Foxy Folksy (2024)

FAQs

What two ingredients help fruitcake last longer? ›

The fruit in a fruitcake is often dried instead of fresh, which reduces moisture and creates this dessert's notoriously dry texture. This, along with the high sugar content, sucks up much of the water that bacteria need to survive.

Other good choices of booze include brandy, rum, or whiskey. Feel free to use one or a mix of these to best complement your fruitcake. Once you've chosen the liquor, bake the cake, poke holes throughout the whole thing, and pour a few tablespoons of the alcohol over it. Or, you can brush the cake with the alcohol.

Wrap the cheesecloth around your fruitcake before wrapping it in a layer of foil. Once again, ensure your fruitcake and the foil do not come in contact with one another. Place your wrapped fruitcake in an airtight container and place all of that in the fridge.

If your fruitcake does not have the dark fruits like currants in it, and is not baked with a dark alcohol, there is one very popular ingredient that can give it its dark color, along with a distinctly robust flavor. That special ingredient? Molasses!

Fruitcake aficionados will tell you that the best fruit cakes are matured – or “seasoned” in fruitcake lingo – for at least three months before they are cut. Seasoning not only improves the flavor of the fruitcake, but it makes it easier to slice.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says that fruitcake will last two to three months in the refrigerator without spoiling, and will maintain its quality if stored up to a year in the freezer.

Wrap it in several layers of cheesecloth and saturate the cheesecloth with rum or brandy. Place in a sealed container or zip bag. If the cloth starts to dry out, add more booze. Your fruitcake should be ready to eat in 7–10 days but it will keep for many weeks when properly aged in alcohol.

Allow cakes to cool in pans on racks. When cooled, remove cakes from pans and remove parchment paper. Brush cakes generously with sweet sherry, brandy, rum, port, liqueur or fruit juice; do not use wine.

The chemical composition of the cake makes it possible to keep it for a 100 years. Indeed, its density prevents bacteria and mold to proliferate and its alcohol content makes it more sanitized, which also has an impact on its conservation.

What causes crumbly fruit cake? ›

This can happen for a variety of reasons ranging from type of flour, not enough eggs/wrong size eggs, not enough liquid or fats and even storage. 'Causes of crumbly fruit cake'.

If it is underbaked, re cooking will not solve the problem. If it is baked and just wet from the alcohol, place the plug back in the hole and leave it open for 20 minutes before covering.

This might be due to under creaming the butter and sugar or if the ingredients are not all the same temperature. If the larger oven bakes hotter it is possible the butter, if under creamed is separating from the batter.

Fruitcake is no ordinary cake. It can stay fresh and edible for months after baking. What typically makes fruitcake last so long is its super dense texture. This texture prevents, let's say, less than appetizing things from setting up camp in the cake's crevices.

Storing a Fruitcake

Once a fruitcake has been aged it can be eaten or gifted. Otherwise, store it tightly wrapped in the refrigerator. Fruitcakes soaked in liquor can last for months or even years if you periodically add more liquor. Since alcohol kills bacteria, it slows down the spoiling process.

Just mix 1 part white vinegar with 3 parts water, dip your fruits and vegetables, and then wash them gently but thoroughly. Vinegar not only prevents mold buildup and rotting, but also helps get rid of pesticides on conventionally grown produce and fruit, and kills bacteria that could be clinging on your vegetables.