credit: Ifanyi Bell / OPB

My mother used to make a version of this fruitcake with a friend’s recipe, which called for Brazil nuts and candied red and green cherries. I swapped a few ingredients after the pre-candied cherries I bought at the store tasted like dust and plastic — even after I soaked them in rum. Now that I’ve baked my first fruitcake, I have much more reverence for people who spend hours, days or even weeks preparing them. I can’t wait to try the cakes I baked next week, when they’ve “aged.” Read more OPB staffers' memories about fruitcake and share your own

Kate's Crazy Fruitcake
Seriously adapted from Janice Scott’s Brazil Nut Loaf

Makes 2 quick bread loaves or four mini-loaves

Fruits and Nuts:

• 1 cup walnuts
• 1 cup roasted & salted cashews (Brazil nuts or pecans)
• 8 oz. pitted dates, diced (about 1 heaping cup)
• ½ cup dried apricots
• 1 cup red maraschino cherries, drained and soaked in rum
• 1 cup fresh-frozen cranberries
• ¾ cup glacéed (candied) tangerines or orange peel (with a little fruit left on) (glaze = ½ cup sugar & ½ cup water)
• 1 cup spiced rum (yes, you’ll have leftovers)

Batter:

• 1 1/2 C flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 C sugar
• 6 medium eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla

The day before (or up to a week before):

Drain half the liquid from 10 oz. maraschino cherries. Replace the drained liquid with spiced rum. Let the mixture sit.

Snip the dried apricots into quarters, then soak them in a small bowl filled with hot water. Let them sit for 30 - 60 minutes while you dice the dates and prep other fruit.

Use kitchen shears to cut the dates into small squares. Place the dates in a medium-sized bowl. When the apricots are re-hydrated, drain the water and douse the fruit with spiced rum. Stir the dates and apricots well. Place a clean cloth over the bowl and let the fruits soak up more rum. Stir the fruit every so often.

Glacé the tangerines. Slice six small tangerines into quarters, using a sharp knife to cut away most of the fruit. Keep the rind plus a ¼” of fruit on each slice. Next, bring ½ cup water and ½ cup sugar (plus any tangerine juice you can save from your cutting board) to a boil in a saucepan. Stir in the tangerine rinds and let them roll on a medium boil for 5 - 10 minutes, until the skins turn semi-translucent and the syrup reduces.

While the citrus is being candied, take a cup of frozen cranberries and place them in a heat-proof bowl.

Remove glacéed tangerines from heat and poured the mixture over the cranberries. Let everything sit for a few minutes before stirring together the candied citrus, still-whole cranberries, and sweet syrup. Top with (you guessed it) rum, cover the bowl, and let the fruit sit.

On the day of baking:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease two loaf pans. Line the pans with parchment paper, then grease the paper. Set aside.

Drain the excess brandy off the fruits, but SAVE THE LIQUID. You’ll need it later, when the cake is curing.

Stir the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar together in a large bowl. Dump in the nuts and preserved fruits, and mix everything together with your hands. Set aside.

Wash your hands, then — using a clean, even larger bowl — beat the eggs with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Add in the fruit/nut mixture a cup or two at a time, mixing on a low speed. (You could also work with your hands again here.)

Pour the batter into your baking pans. Bake for between 1 ½ hours and 1 hour 45 minutes at 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Peel away the waxed paper while the loaves are still hot. Brush the cakes lightly with rum while they’re still warm.

You could eat the cake now, or you could go for the gold and:

Let the cake cool, then wrap in rum-soaked cheesecloth. Place the loaves in an air-tight container for a week, checking every so often to add more rum to the cloth. Cure the cake for at least a week or even a month in a cool place (like the fridge.) Think of the fruitcake as a sweet cheese that must ripen.