MOLE DARK RICH CHRISTMAS CAKE recipe

 “Wonderful. Gives a whole new meaning to flour power. You'll undoubtedly change the world, one fruitcake at a time.” ― Kimberly Frost, Barely Bewitched

MOLE RICH DARK FRUITCAKE
 I  made one fruitcake recipe  this year. Dark and Rich. Mole rich. Mole sauce is also used in Mexican cooking. Cocoa is added to the recipe. Not to  turn it into chocolate, but to make it dark and rich.

SET OVEN to 275 degrees. (On a convection oven ,if using top and bottom tier, I put it to 300)

 SOAK in IN LARGE BOWL:                               

6 cups dark raisins                                                                                                          

1 ½ cups chopped dates                                                 

1 pound mixed peel                                                         

½ pound candied cherries                                               

2 cups almonds                                                                      

1 cup walnuts                                                                       

1 cup pecans                                                                         

2 cups prunes                                                                                                                2 ½ cups Whiskey ( just chug it into the bowl. It burns off in the baking)

 *You can use orange juice, but it is sooooo blah. The booze pumps up the taste and bakes out.This year I used some of the wine we make, just cause it was handy.

  The recipe I have  is about 70 years old.  Makes about 16 small loaf pans. The kind you get from the store. Small pans that you grease and line with parchment. I line them up on cookie sheets.The wee loaves are very cute. Very freezeable.

 Spray with Pam. Then slide in a piece of parchment paper. Spray again. When you plop in the batter, smooth the tops. I put the batter right to the top. Makes a pudgy little loaf.

 2 cups butter             2 cups sugar         beaten together    
ADD in 3 tbsp cocoa.   

 Beat in 12 eggs  two at a time.

 3 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, good pinch of salt.

 1 tblsp vanilla extract ( use the good stuff....I use Madagascar) and 1 tblsp almond extract

 Mix together, 1/2 cup molasses, 1/2 cup cranberry juice or grape juice, with 1/2 cup strong coffee

 Throw all of this into the batter. Stir.

 Add about 3 1/4 cups flour , 2 tsp allspice, 4 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg ground of course.

 Add 1 cup extra flour into the soaking fruit. Mix together.

 COMBINE SOAKED FRUIT with BATTER in BOWL. Use  CLEAN hands or baking gloves. It is a lot of batter to handle. You might have to add extra flour to get the proper consistency...like an extra 1/2 cup. Just eyeball it.

 Stuff in the fruit/batter into the foil pans. Place on cookie sheets. If you have a convection oven this works really well, and you can bake them all at once. Doesn’t need a pan of hot water in the centre.

 Bake at 275  about 45 minutes, then add more time as you need, testing the centres with a sharp knife. I think in the end it took about an hour. But each time you bake  these the time differs, so add ten minutes after the initial 45, and then add less as it counts down. Should be a dry edge you pull out of the cakes. Just be sure to watch them and test till you are satisfied they are done.

 You can brush with a little whiskey when done baking , if you wish.( I really dislike the taste of  alcohol on xmas cakes ), but that’s just my preference. So the whiskey you smother the fruit with, should be enough, as it bakes right in.  I freeze them in little bags, with the ingredient list slipped under the plastic. 

             "At Christmas all roads lead home..." -Marjorie Holmes

Photographs 2018