Letter: Yes, fruitcake is delicious, here’s our family recipe

Reading your community poll about fruitcakes “yay or nay”, I would like to pass along a delicious fruitcake recipe that has been passed down to me.

In 1971, my father cut out a fruitcake recipe from “The Toronto Star” and every year we make Willis Davidson's Famous Fruit Cake. I do have the original clipping. It does make a big batch, but he gave smaller sizes to friends and relatives.

(Editor’s note: Willis Davidson’s fruitcake recipe was most recently included in ‘Toronto Star Cookbook: More Than 150 Diverse and Delicious Recipes Celebrating Ontario’ by Jennifer Bain. Apparently a popular version of fruitcake, the recipe is reprinted on numerous websites and in numerous publications, including The New York Times, which printed the recipe in 1979. Sudbury.com was unable to determine who Willis Davidson was. If you have insights, email the editor at [email protected].)

So delicious, it is, and very moist it stays. It does have an option of adding rum or brandy.

Unfortunately, my father passed away three years ago and we have not enjoyed this cake for many years as he was living with Alzheimer's disease for several years prior to his passing.

My brother and I have talked about this cake often, so this year we decided to share the purchasing of the ingredients and we made this fruitcake.

Very expensive today it is to purchase the ingredients, but we thought we would give it a try. Of course, it will never taste the same as how my father made it year after year. Since we never watched him while he made this cake, we don’t know all his little secrets of making it turn out perfectly.

Our creation turned out well, moist and delicious. After making it, I do think he used brandy instead of rum. We thought rum would of been the ingredient because he did enjoy a drink of it.

Linda Derkacz
Capreol

Willis Davidson’s Famous Fruitcake Recipe

Ingredients

2-1/2 cups chopped pitted dates
2 cups chopped candied citron peel
2 cups seedless raisins
1-1/2 cups currants
1-1/2 cups blanched whole almonds
1-1/2 cups chopped maraschino cherries, drained
1/2 cup liquid from maraschino cherries
12 eggs
1 can (19 oz.) undrained crushed pineapple
2-3 tbsp. brandy
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup brandy OR fruit juice
1 cup strawberry jam
4 cups flour
1-1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. ground allspice
2 cups butter
2 cups granulated sugar

Directions

Day 1:

In large bowl, mix together dates, citron peel, raisins, currants, almonds and cherries. Stir in 1/2 cup brandy or fruit juice. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature overnight. In saucepan, combine pineapple and 2 cups sugar; bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring frequently, 30-40 minutes or until mixture thickens. There should be about 2-1/2 cups of pineapple mixture. Remove from heat, stir in reserved cherry liquid and jam; cover and refrigerate overnight.

Day 2:

Generously grease and line 5 9” x 5” loaf pans or 3 standard wedding cake pans with waxed paper, parchment paper or aluminum foil; grease lining. In bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, cloves and allspice; set aside. Add 1 cup of flour mixture to date mixture and toss to thoroughly coat fruits. In large mixing bowl, cream butter and 2 cups sugar; beat in eggs, 1 at a time, blending well after each addition. Alternately stir in small amounts of flour mixture and pineapple mixture into butter mixture and blend well. Stir in date mixture. Spoon batter into prepared pans. Place a large, shallow pan of water on bottom rack of oven; fill half full with hot water and preheat oven to 275°F. Place loaf pans on middle rack and bake 1-1/2 to 2 hours or until tester inserted in centre comes out clean – test often as ovens and baking pans vary. Remove cakes from oven; cool 10 minutes. Remove from pan, peel off paper and cool. Wrap individually in cheesecloth soaked in remaining 2-3 tbsp. brandy. Wrap in plastic wrap then aluminum foil. Store in cool place and moisten cheesecloth occasionally with additional brandy.