This is so good. Impossible to eat just one piece. Mother starts to bake
slabs of this cake in August. I recently cost me over $32.00 for fruits and
nuts at the local bin store. Worth every penny. (Mother is 87 and lives in
North Bay. Ontario.)

Butter the tins and line with buttered foil

(Seems to work OK without the foil)

1 lb butter

2 cups white sugar

8 eggs (use a few more if small)

3 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

¾ lb green and red glace cherries

1 lb glazed pineapple

shelled almonds or any nuts, as many as you want

1 tsp almond extract, and 1 tsp vanilla extract, or 2 tsp of whichever one
you have

1 lb bleached white raisins

1 pkg citron peal or mixed peal

I use enough fruit to just be held together by that amount of dough. You can
put in whatever fruit and nuts you want, adding as you go.

If you think the dough is too soft, don't add more flour, it makes the cake
tough.

Cream butter and sugar together until very light and fluffy. Add eggs and
beat in each one as you add it, until smoothly blended. Sift the unsifted
flour with the baking powder and salt. Mix ½ cup of this flour mixture
through the prepared fruits and nuts, which have been mixed together.
Sprinkle remaining flour mixture over creamed mixture and stir until
blended. Stir in vanilla and/or almond extract. Add floured fruits and nuts
and mix together using your hands. Turn into pans.

Do not preheat oven. Put water pan below cakes. (Three-quarter fill broiler
pan with boiling water after it is in position in the oven.) Turn oven on to
250 F. Bake about three hours (SEE NOTES BELOW) or until top feels firm to
touch. Depends on size of your pans. Use a toothpick to test, done when
toothpick comes out clean. Don't overcook.

Cool in pans on cake rack. Can slice after 24 hours. Wrap in cheesecloth or
several layers of foil. Keeps well, you can add rum later if it seems a bit
dry. Also freezes well.



NOTES: Mother has her times a bit screwed up here. When pans were regular
bread tins, Cakes were done in 1 1/4 hours. It is real easy to overbake
resulting in cement blocks. Baking times will vary with pan size. BEWARE.

I soaked the raisins in rum overnight. Nice touch!

Pour an ounce of rum over the cake and wrap airtight in aluminum foil.

Lick the bowl. The batter is marvelous.

Don't know if glazed cherries and dried pineapple are available everywhere.
See if fresh nuts are available. Stale nuts are terrible.



Compliments of the Season from Eastern Ontario.



F.J.