Fruit Cake 101 – Tips for Baking and Storing Fruit Cakes

Fruit Cake 101 – Tips for Baking & Storing Fruit Cakes.

Baking a fruit cake is a little different than regular cakes, so in this Fruit cake 101 you will find Tips for baking the perfect Fruit Cake and Tips for Storing your Fruit Cake.

 

Click here to Pin this recipe on Pinterest 

I know Christmas is coming so everyone has almost started with the Fruit cake preparations.

To those of us that have been doing fruit cakes for years ; it’s just a regular cake. For those that are just starting out; it’s quite unnerving when people tell you – Fruit cake is different? How is it different? Why is it different? and What do I need to do differently.

How is Fruit Cake Different?

• Well, it has so much more than just four egg and butter? The real difference is the addition of all those gorgeous fruits.
• Most often we eat our cakes baked fresh, but not a fruit cake. Usually a fruit cake is well preserved, fed with alcohol over weeks before the special day.
• If you do not follow the right process for storing fruit cake you could end up with a moldy fruit cake which is not very pleasant
• Most cakes are decorated with buttercream, ganache fondant and such but a traditional fruit cake is brushed with orange marmalade, then wrapped in Marzipan and then covered in Royal Icing or sometimes Fondant.

Fruit cake reminds of mom…!!

Yes! my mom baked cakes a lot. In fact she took orders for cake but never decorated them. So I remember the once July sets in she’d soak her fruits, once October sets in she’d start making her preparations and arrangements to make sure she has a nice cozy cool corner for the fruit cakes to season. That’s what she’d call them season. She was very good at baking so she’d get book way in advance. But she only took that much orders and I’d tell her – mama you should take more orders so we can be rich.! But she’s say – No thank you I’m over booked.  Well, now you know where I got my baking germ from.

Ah well. let’s gt back to our Fruit cake – shall we?

1.  First – Fruit Cake 101  –  I have already given you my recipe for my Rich Fruit Cake  –

I have complied a few tips that I think are really important to know when baking a fruit cake. I do hope you find them useful. If you have any more suggestions please put them in the comment below. We’d love to hear them.

Tips for Baking a perfect Fruit Cake – Fruit Cake 101

• Always soak the fruit – at least over night it will soften and make the cake moist
• Dust the fruit in flour before you add to the batter so they will not sink to the bottom of the pan.
  If the fruit is wet, drain excess liquid and dust with flour just before adding to the batter
• You can add the liquid in which the fruit was soaked to the batter separately. (unless you want to limit quantity of alcohol)
• Fill the pan only 2/3 full not more
• Line the baking pans on all sides to avoid burning due to the long slow cooking.
• I prefer to line pan plus add cake strips to avoid the outter edges drying.
• Ensure oven temperature is low so the batter will cook evenly without drying out the fruit
• Add some water to the baking tray around the pan or a small bowl of water in the oven to help keep the cake moist.

MIXED SPICES AND FLAVORS.

• Mixed spice is generally made with Cinnamon, ginger powder, cloves, all spice and nutmeg sometimes even caraway seeds, cardamom and cayenne.
• Cannot get mixed spice ? add 1/8 tsp each of ground Cinnamon, ground ginger, ground clove and or ground all spice.
• Don’t like the above spices or can’t find them? – add the Cinnamon and 1 tsp vanilla or 1/2 tsp almond extract
• If you are going to use orange marmalade to brush the fruit cake later you could add 1/2 tsp of orange extract to enhance the flavors)

This was of course one of our Tip Thursdays on Facebook recently – I have now compiled them on the blog. You can find more of these under Tip Thursday as well as Pin them on Pinterest

Tips for Storing Fruit Cakes  – Fruit Cake 101

In general – you can store Fruit cake at room temperature for one month, refrigerator for six months, Freezer for up to a year!!!

To ensure you have a nice moist fruit cake.

1.Take a muslin/cheese cloth soaked in rum, brandy or fruit juice Wrap the cake well with this liquor / fruit soaked cheese cloth.

2.Cover the wrapped cake  in aluminum foil.

3.Do not let the aluminum touch the cake directly. The acid in the liquor will corrode the foil and effect the flavor of the cake.

4.Place the cake in an airtight plastic box.

5.Keep away from direct sunlight.

More Tips – 

• The liquor / juice soaked muslin/cheese cloth can be refreshed every month to ensure a moist fruit cake.
•  Place an apple in the box with the fruit cake to help keep moisture.

Extended  Length  storage – more than a year. cover the alcohol soaked fruit cake in Powder sugar, then in plastic  and  then in a air tight container.

Again this was our Tip Thursday – you can find them all on this blog and Pin them on Pinterest here to

So again. If you have any of your own tips you like to add or tricks to share with us feel free to put them in the comments. We’d love to hear them.

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