Fruitcake *without* alcohol
 

For an assortment of reasons, I find myself needing to make this
season's fruitcake without brandy/rum/whisk(e)y. This is not
negotiable, OK?

I'm planning on macerating the dried fruit in water with orange and
lemon extracts, rather than my usual rum/brandy combination.

How do I store the cakes so that the flavors will mellow without the
cakes getting stale or moldy? (moldy is more likely with the recipe I
use.)

All of my cookbooks say to wrap in a tea-towel, place in a cake tin
and spritz with brandy or rum every week or so. (OK, gg-gramma's
recipe doesn't say that, but it just says 'mix dry ingredients with
wet ingredients. mix in fruit and nuts. bake at 325 until done.')

TIA
jenn

"Jenn Ridley" > wrote in message
...
> For an assortment of reasons, I find myself needing to make this
> season's fruitcake without brandy/rum/whisk(e)y. This is not
> negotiable, OK?
>
> I'm planning on macerating the dried fruit in water with orange and
> lemon extracts, rather than my usual rum/brandy combination.
>
> How do I store the cakes so that the flavors will mellow without the
> cakes getting stale or moldy? (moldy is more likely with the recipe I
> use.)
>
> All of my cookbooks say to wrap in a tea-towel, place in a cake tin
> and spritz with brandy or rum every week or so. (OK, gg-gramma's
> recipe doesn't say that, but it just says 'mix dry ingredients with
> wet ingredients. mix in fruit and nuts. bake at 325 until done.')
>

My mother was strictly against alcohol consumption. She made fruitcakes
every year. She put apple slices in the tin with the fruitcake. She would
check them occasionally and change the apple slices as needed. I don't
recall that they ever got moldy. As I recall, she always had the cakes made
before Thanksgiving for consumption on Christmas.. You could also soak some
cheesecloth or a towel in orange juice and wrap the cake in that. You might
also try using some of the flavored syrups sold for coffee. You just need
something that will humidify the container that contains the cake. Of
course, you need to store the cakes in cool, dark place.

If the cake is made with the right ingredients, ie :- butter instead of
margarine etc, sugar instead of a substitute, all items being right and the
cake is baked for the correct amount of time, and not overbaked and allowed
to dry out, and the liner to the pan is left intact on the cake, and it is
stored in a cool dry place it should be just fine, after all it only has
about 6 weeks max.
In the old days cakes were stored in a wooden box or a drawer in the
sideboard, the wood allows it to breath.

PS, I do like to enclose my cake in a foil cover when it comes hot from the
oven, and then allowed to cool, remove foil before storing.

PPS if your fruit is nice and fresh you really don't need to macerate.
And continue like gg grandma says. :-)


"Jenn Ridley" > wrote in message
...
> For an assortment of reasons, I find myself needing to make this
> season's fruitcake without brandy/rum/whisk(e)y. This is not
> negotiable, OK?
>
> I'm planning on macerating the dried fruit in water with orange and
> lemon extracts, rather than my usual rum/brandy combination.
>
> How do I store the cakes so that the flavors will mellow without the
> cakes getting stale or moldy? (moldy is more likely with the recipe I
> use.)
>
> All of my cookbooks say to wrap in a tea-towel, place in a cake tin
> and spritz with brandy or rum every week or so. (OK, gg-gramma's
> recipe doesn't say that, but it just says 'mix dry ingredients with
> wet ingredients. mix in fruit and nuts. bake at 325 until done.')
>
> TIA
> jenn

On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 10:19:08 -0500
"qahtan" > wrote:


> PPS if your fruit is nice and fresh you really don't need to macerate.
> And continue like gg grandma says. :-)


If your fruit is nice & fresh you have funny ideas about fruitcake,
having been traditionally made with dried fruits.

"Eric Jorgensen" > wrote in message
news:20041112090638.4e3797f0@wafer...
> On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 10:19:08 -0500
> "qahtan" > wrote:
>
>
> > PPS if your fruit is nice and fresh you really don't need to macerate.
> > And continue like gg grandma says. :-)
>
>
> If your fruit is nice & fresh you have funny ideas about fruitcake,
> having been traditionally made with dried fruits.

My thoughts exactly.

"Eric Jorgensen" > wrote in message
news:20041112090638.4e3797f0@wafer...
> On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 10:19:08 -0500
> "qahtan" > wrote:
>
>
> > PPS if your fruit is nice and fresh you really don't need to macerate.
> > And continue like gg grandma says. :-)
>
>
> If your fruit is nice & fresh you have funny ideas about fruitcake,
> having been traditionally made with dried fruits.

My thoughts exactly.

"Vox Humana" > wrote:

>
>"Jenn Ridley" > wrote in message
.. .

>> How do I store the cakes so that the flavors will mellow without the
>> cakes getting stale or moldy? (moldy is more likely with the recipe I
>> use.)
>>
>> All of my cookbooks say to wrap in a tea-towel, place in a cake tin
>> and spritz with brandy or rum every week or so. (OK, gg-gramma's
>> recipe doesn't say that, but it just says 'mix dry ingredients with
>> wet ingredients. mix in fruit and nuts. bake at 325 until done.')
>>
>
>My mother was strictly against alcohol consumption. She made fruitcakes
>every year. She put apple slices in the tin with the fruitcake. She would
>check them occasionally and change the apple slices as needed. I don't
>recall that they ever got moldy. As I recall, she always had the cakes made
>before Thanksgiving for consumption on Christmas.. You could also soak some
>cheesecloth or a towel in orange juice and wrap the cake in that. You might
>also try using some of the flavored syrups sold for coffee. You just need
>something that will humidify the container that contains the cake. Of
>course, you need to store the cakes in cool, dark place.

Thank you!

I knew it could be done (after all, gg-gramma was a tee-totalling
Methodist) but "everyone knows" that fruitcake is soaked/spritzed with
brandy/bourbon/whisk(e)y, and I couldn't find anything with
information otherwise.

And I was slightly incorrect...gg-gramma's recipe says 'bake in slow
oven until done', not 325.


thanks!

jenn
--
Jenn Ridley :

Meaning that the fruit be new stock that has not been around a long time
and really dried up.
Meaning currants, sultanas and raisins that are nice and shiny not all
hard as a bullet and really miserable.



"Eric Jorgensen" > wrote in message
news:20041112090638.4e3797f0@wafer...
> On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 10:19:08 -0500
> "qahtan" > wrote:
>
>
>> PPS if your fruit is nice and fresh you really don't need to macerate.
>> And continue like gg grandma says. :-)
>
>
> If your fruit is nice & fresh you have funny ideas about fruitcake,
> having been traditionally made with dried fruits.

On Thu, 11 Nov 2004 16:06:17 -0500, Jenn Ridley wrote:

> For an assortment of reasons, I find myself needing to make this
> season's fruitcake without brandy/rum/whisk(e)y. This is not
> negotiable, OK?
>
> I'm planning on macerating the dried fruit in water with orange and
> lemon extracts, rather than my usual rum/brandy combination. <snip>

Be sure and read the ingredient list on your extracts. They often have
alcohol contents of 40% or so.

However, one has to look at the total volume of ingredients. US Federal
law considers anything with an alcohol content of under 0.5% to be
non-alcoholic. Even ordinary fruit juices can naturally ferment to this
level while sitting out, unbeknownst to the consumer.

Of course, if you are baking these for a recovering alcoholic, the mental
knowledge of alcohol presence can be as or more important than actual
presence of alcohol or lack thereof.



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mercutio > wrote:

>On Thu, 11 Nov 2004 16:06:17 -0500, Jenn Ridley wrote:
>
>> For an assortment of reasons, I find myself needing to make this
>> season's fruitcake without brandy/rum/whisk(e)y. This is not
>> negotiable, OK?
>>
>> I'm planning on macerating the dried fruit in water with orange and
>> lemon extracts, rather than my usual rum/brandy combination. <snip>
>
>Be sure and read the ingredient list on your extracts. They often have
>alcohol contents of 40% or so.

I know that, but it doesn't taste like it. I actually used oils, so
that's not a problem anyway.

>Of course, if you are baking these for a recovering alcoholic, the mental
>knowledge of alcohol presence can be as or more important than actual
>presence of alcohol or lack thereof.

No, it's just for extended family consumption, and both DH and MIL
*hate* the taste of alcohol. So, no spritzing the fruitcake with
booze. Extracts in the cake (vanilla, citrus) are fine. Macerating
in booze is not acceptable. (MIL won't know what's in it, but she'll
gripe about how 'this tastes bad')

jenn