Easy, Fruity, Boozy Fruit Cake Recipe with Rum

Easy, Fruity, Boozy Fruit Cake Recipe with Rum

Enjoy the irresistible aroma of this simple fruit cake recipe made with Rum and studded with dried fruits such as kiwifruit, papaya fruit, Turkish apricots, and pineapple. On day one, soak the dried fruits in Bacardi gold rum or any other alcohol of your choice. Bake the cake the next day and serve it on the third day. It is that easy.

Be a rebel. Make a Boozy Fruitcake.

Fruitcake, the brunt of all jokes over the years, has been mocked mercilessly every Christmas for decades. Let’s face it: the versions made with cheap alcohol and sticky, coloured candied fruit from the drugstore or poorly prepared are terrible. This isn’t.

Our delicious buttery recipe for fruitcake is inspired by the classic recipe from Gourmet magazine and Claire Saffitz’s One Day Fruitcake. It’s decadent but with a twist. The traditional candied fruit is replaced by colourful dried fruits such as dried orange Turkish apricots or emerald green kiwi. They are then soaked with just the right amount of golden Bacardi rum. This recipe makes a single loaf of bread, unlike other recipes which make multiple cakes. You can make enough to feed a small group, or you can double or triple it for a big celebration.

Ingredients

You can find the ingredients to make our fruitcake with Rum in your local grocery store’s health food section or snack section. You can also find dried fruits at Target, CVS and Whole Foods. They are also available online and in stores such as Whole Foods and organic food stores. Nuts Factory has a shop in my town where I purchased my dried fruit.

Fruit soak

• For this recipe, you’ll need to use 3 3/4 cups of dried mixed fruit. You can pick any combination. In this recipe for fruit cake, I used a mixture of colourful dried fruits – Turkish Apricots (orange), Papaya (reddish orange), Golden Raisins (golden), Kiwi (green), Turkish apricots and cranberries. All dried fruits except the naturally smaller ones, such as currants and raisins, should be chopped into size.
• To give the cake its unique flavour, I used Bacardi gold rum. Brandy, Grand Marnier and sherry are also popular choices.
• To add moisture and fruity flavour, I squeeze fresh oranges.

Fruit cake batter

• I made almond powder from scratch by first toasting blanched almonds and then grinding them with a spice grinder (you can use a blender instead if you do not have a mill). This step can be skipped, and almond flour is a good substitute.
• Unsalted Butter can be used to enhance the flavour of a recipe and create a moist, rich crumb. I prefer unsalted because I can control the amount of sodium in my cake. If you are using salted Butter, I will remove the salt.
• All-purpose flour is a great option for this recipe. You can use cake flour.
• Baking Powder leaves and increases the volume of your cake.
• Add flavour to your cake with salt, ground nutmeg and clove.
• Brown Sugar adds sweetness and a molasses-like flavour to the cake.
• Eggs add moisture to the cake and structure and stability.
• I add pecans for a bit of crunch. Walnuts also make a great nut for fruitcake.
• Apricot Jam can be used to glaze a cake to seal the moisture and add a beautiful shine.

How can I make a fruitcake without alcohol?

If you want a fruitcake without alcohol, omit the Rum and soak the fruits instead in 2/3 cup of freshly squeezed orange juice. Step 5 involves feeding the cake rum. Skip this step and go straight to step 6, where you will glaze and decorate your cake.

Can the fruitcake mix-ins be changed?

This recipe for fruit cake with Rum can be customized to suit your tastes. Here are some suggestions for substitutions.

• Use 4 cups of nuts and dried fruits. Personally, I think the best combination is 3 3/4 cups dried fruit with 1/4 cup nuts. Candied mixed fruit, currants, and dark raisins are all popular dried fruit choices for fruitcake. If desired, you can substitute up to half of the total amount of dried fruits with chocolate chips. Pecans and Walnuts are my favourite nuts to use in fruitcakes.
• Use different colours of fruit to create various effects. For example, use only green dried kiwi in a St. Patrick’s Day cake, or go monochromatic with figs, currants, and dates.
• Make sure the combination of fruits is balanced. Golden raisins are sweeter than candied fruit. In small quantities, candied oranges can be delicious, but if you add too many per bite, they will overwhelm the cake. You can check the fruit combination by swishing a little water on your palate and then tasting half a teaspoon of dried fruits. If necessary, adjust accordingly.
• Substituting fresh fruit for the Christmas fruit cake can be tricky. Fresh fruits release extra moisture when they are baked, which could affect the cake’s batter.
• Experiment using your favourite spices.

Instructions

Day#1: Soak dried fruits

In a medium-sized bowl, combine the golden raisins, dried Turkish apricots (or apricots), cranberries and apricots. Also, add the kiwi fruit, pineapples, figs, and ginger. Pour the dark orange juice and Rum over the mixture. Mix with a wooden spoon. Cover the container and allow it to sit at room temp for 12 hours. Shake the container to ensure the fruit evenly absorbs the liquid.

Day 2: Make the Cake

Step one: Preheat oven and line loaf pan with parchment

Preheat oven to 325deg. Place racks in the bottom and middle of the oven. Line a loaf pan using parchment paper.

Step two: Toast the almonds and then grind them into a powder.

The blanched almonds should be toasted in a small, dry skillet on medium heat. Tossing them often until they are light brown and fragrant, about 3 minutes. Allow to cool, and then grind in stages with a spice grinder. Pour into a small bowl and put aside. If you’re not using nuts, or are using almond flour, skip this step.

Step 3: Prepare the batter

Combine the dry ingredients. In a small bowl, combine the all-purpose powder, ground almond powder, and baking powder. Add the nutmeg, cloves, ginger, salt, and nutmeg. Mix all ingredients with a whisk.

Combine the wet ingredients. Transfer unsalted Butter, brown sugar, and vanilla extract to an electric stand mixer bowl. Beat the mixture on medium speed with the paddle attachment until it is light and fluffy. Beat in 2 eggs. If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can also use a wooden or electric spoon. Mix the batter in a large bowl.

Mix all ingredients. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients in one step. Just enough to incorporate all visible flour – around 15-20 seconds. Add the fruit mixture soaked in water and chopped pecans. With a spatula, fold in the mix. Do not overmix.

Pour batter into the loaf pan lined with parchment paper.

Step Four: Bake a fruit cake

Fill the loaf pan with boiling water and place it on the bottom rack. Place the pan with the cake batter on the middle rack. Spray water inside the oven. Close the oven immediately. Bake the fruitcake for an hour. If the fruitcake looks as if it’s browning too quickly, cover it with aluminium foil. Continue baking the fruitcake in a dry oven until the skewer in the centre comes out clean, about 15 minutes.

Step 5: Feeding the cake with Rum

The fruit cake should cool for about 30 minutes in the loaf pan.

Holding the parchment in each hand, lift the cake gently. At this stage, the cake is still hot and may easily crumble. Place the cake on the wire rack after removing the parchment. Place the bottom of the cake on top of some parchment. With a skewer, gently poke holes in the bottom of the cake. Douse the bottom of the cake with about one tablespoon of Rum. Brushing the surface can cause it to crumble. Remove any parchment and turn the cake over. Brush the top of the cake and the sides with two tablespoons of Rum. Let the cake cool completely.

Continue to feed the cake (optional). Wrap the cake in baking parchment, then foil, and finally plastic wrap. Every two weeks, feed the cake with 1-2 teaspoons of Rum (or your favourite alcohol) and rewrap it. The cake should be fed about four times, including the initial feed, in which the Rum was dabbed on the cake while it was warm from the oven. To maximize the absorption, serve the cake one week later. The cake can either be kept in a cool place or the refrigerator. Store the cake in the fridge if you intend to keep it for several months.

Day 3: Glaze the cake and serve it

Microwave apricot preserves for 30 seconds. Brush the apricot jam liberally on the top and side of the golden-brown cake. The apricot glaze seals the moisture in the cake and acts as a glaze. Remove any large chunks of apricot jelly to ensure the glaze is uniform. The top of the cake can be decorated with walnuts, and the glaze for the walnuts should also include the jam. Keep in a refrigerator airtight container. It is best to serve the cake after it has been in the refrigerator for at least a day.

How to make the best fruitcake with Rum

• The flavours intensify with time. To get the best results, prepare the Rum up to seven weeks in advance and bast it every week. Prepare to amaze your family and guests.
• The dried fruits should be diced in even pieces. The dried fruit should be roughly the same size as a half-dice.
• You should use a total of 4 cups of dried fruit and nuts. The best combination for me is 3 3/4 cups dried fruit with 1/4 cup nuts.
• Variate the colour of the fruit to achieve different effects. For example, you could use only green dried kiwi in a St. Patrick’s Day Fruit Cake or use a monochromatic combination of chopped dates, figs and currants.
• Check for sweetness. Make sure your dried fruit is sweet enough. The sweetness of candied fruit is higher than that of golden raisins. Candied oranges, while delicious in small quantities, can become overwhelming when eaten in large amounts. For a better idea of your combination of fruits, take a sip or two of water and then try half a teaspoon of dried fruit. If necessary, adjust accordingly.
• It cannot be easily substituted with fresh fruits. This recipe for fruit cake with Rum has not been calibrated to fresh fruits. Fresh fruit can release additional moisture during baking, which may affect the cake batter.
• Use your favourite spices. Experiment with powdered spices such as allspice or cinnamon. Note how many are already in this recipe to determine the quantity of spices to be used.
• Use long parchment pieces to line the loaf pan. I cut one long piece of parchment to cover the entire length of the pan, with an overhang on one side. Instead of cutting two pieces to cover the shorter sides, I used one piece that provided a double layer on the bottom. It is easier to flip and lift the cake when it’s warm. This step is optional but simplifies the process.

Nutrition

One serving of this Fruit Cake Recipe with Rum contains about 461 calories, 35.1 grams of fat, 5.8 grams of protein, and 35.1 grams of carbohydrates.

This recipe for fruit cake with rum yields about ten servings. This nutrition guide is only for informational purposes. Use it as a guideline. You should verify the nutrition information using your favourite tool if it is important to you.

Fruitcake: How do you store it?

Fruit cake can last a long time if it is stored correctly.

• Short term (1-4 weeks). A freshly made, unglazed fruitcake in an airtight jar will remain fresh at room temperature for up to four weeks. If you glaze your fruitcake, keep it in the fridge.
• Medium-term (about 2 months). Fruitcakes can be stored in the fridge for up to two months if it is kept in an airtight container.
• For long-term storage (approximately 4 months), Cool the fruitcake completely. No glaze. If you intend to consume slices over a period of time, cut the cake into small pieces. Wrap the cake in parchment paper, aluminium foil, and plastic wrap. The entire cake can be defrosted in the refrigerator overnight. You can reheat a single slice in the microwave by cutting it or taking a pre-cut piece.

Serve this fruit cake with Rum.

Once the cake has cooled completely, slice it with a thin serrated blade. Here are some suggestions on how to serve the cake.

• Alone. Fruitcake tastes great on its own. It is a great snack that can be taken anywhere.
• With coffee or tea. Fruit cake is a great accompaniment to coffee, homemade cappuccino, or tea, especially masala chai, because of its chewy, sweet texture.
• Toast with Butter. Toasted with Butter.
• With a slice of cheese. It’s an art to pair fruitcake with cheese. It’s best to go with a sharp cheese, like cheddar. The sweet flavours in fruitcake complement it well. Camembert and Brie are also safe choices. Stilton is a great cheese to pair with cakes that have a lot of cherries. Stilton has a strong peppery flavour and is creamy. Fruitcakes that are extra dense and made primarily of almonds and figs, with a strong molasses flavour, tend to pair well with Malvarosa. This aged sheep’s milk cheese is from Valencia.
• Ice cream. Fruitcakes can be crumbled and sprinkled on top of ice cream or used as the base for a sundae.
• As a biscuit, place the fruitcake in the freezer to harden for 30 minutes. Slice the fruitcake thinly into 1-inch-wide pieces. Flip the fruitcake after 30 minutes at 275degF. Biscotti will be done when they look lightly toasted and dried.
• Drizzled in lemon icing. For a festive appearance, make the fruitcake in a Bundt pan or several mini-loaves. Pour over lemon icing made from confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice. Use a Bundt cake pan and grease it generously with Butter before flouring it.
• During special occasions. This cake is served often during the holidays and is also known as Christmas Cake. This fruit cake is a traditional choice for weddings and looks festive when decorated using icing, orange peel and dried fruits.

Fruit Cake Variations

• Fruit cake without alcohol. Replace the Rum that is used to soak dry fruits in with simple syrup or fruit juices like apple or orange juice, or a combination of both.
• Orange brandy fruitcake. Replace the Rum in this recipe with orange brandy. Add a little orange zest to the batter or a quarter cup candied orange.

Other Famous Fruit Cakes

• Caribbean Black Cake is a dense fruitcake that has a distinctive dark colour. This dark colour comes from the prolonged soaking of dried fruits in dark Rum for several weeks. It is different from our recipe for fruit cake with dark Rum in that the ingredients also include dark brown sugar or molasses.
• Jamaican Rum Cake is often soaked in dark Rum for a long period. It is different from a fruit cake infused with Rum because it uses Jamaican dark, a unique spice mix, and a browning sauce, which gives the dark colour. Tortuga-brand cakes are a popular souvenir from the Caribbean, and they’re made with Caribbean premium Rum. Tortuga Rum Company has a variety of flavours, including classic, banana, chocolate and coconut.