This is mine. It is very good, but sometimes you have to hunt for the ingredients.

Jeweled Fruit Cake Bake 350* 80-90 minutes

2 eggs,beaten

1/2 cup water

1 Jar NoneSuch Rum and Brandy Mincemeat

2 pkgs Pillsbury Nut Bread Mix

1/2 pkg chopped dates

2 cups (16oz) candied fruit mix

1 cup chopped nuts (I use pecans)

1/2 cup rum

Generously grease and flour tube pan. In a large bowl, combine eggs and water. Stir in mincemeat, bread mix, nuts, and fruit. Spoon into pan. Bake at 350* for 80 to 90 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. After cake cools, add rum, and cover tightly in foil. Store 1 week before using.

Freezes well.

Found it

This is a copy of my mother in laws no bake fruit cake

Lucille’s Unbaked Fruit Cake:

1lb. graham crakers(or box of crumbs)

1/2lb. raisins

1/2lb. chopped dates

1 lb. mixed candied fruit

1/2 cup candied orange rind(optional)

1or2 sm.cont.maraschino cherries(if you really like cherries add 2)

2 cups nuts(or more if you have it and no need to chop)

1 tsp.cinnamon

1 tsp.allspice

1 large can evaporated milk

1lb. mini marshmellows(1bag)

Crush crackers and add chopped fruits.

Heat milk and add marshmellows. Do not allow to melt completely.

Pour this over dry ingredients.

Mix well and pack firmly into loaf pans.

Store in refrigerator a few days before serving.

*If you want to flavor with rum or bourbon poke holes in top with toothpick and slowly pour a jigger over top(just one!). These do have to "age" in the fridge so don't rush it. And they freeze well.

Oh Joann, you have my mouth watering just mentioning fruitcake. Baking them was a ritual for my late mother as the holidays approached. I haven't had a slice in years. Both the recipes cited here sound so good! I like mine full of candied fruit, nuts, and spices too.

OT, but Raven: I'm so sorry to hear you lost all your recipes. :(

Best fruitcake I ever had was at a KT get together, in Fredericksburg, Tx. Apricot fruitcake. Sooooo good! Someone went into town, bought it and shared with the group.

My aunt who passed a few years ago was no cook by any stretch but she made the best fruit cake I've ever eaten. I know she made it at least a month before Christmas but that's all I know. LOL. I'll try to get ahold of her daughter and find out if she has the recipe...she's no cook either so maybe not.

MP, Your relatives are English, no? They would know how to make fruit cake. Yum.

We love Alton Brown's Free Range Fruitcake. But it's got dried fruits instead of candied. Which is why we prefer it.

I found it on a old thread Marilyn. Thank you for posting it back in 2014.

It is called Cherry Pineapple Cake but I have also seen it listed as White Fruitcake, although I have seen other variations also called White Fruitcake.

4 cups chopped nuts. (I use pecans or walnuts)
1 lb. candied pineapple
1 lb. candied cherries...I use half red, half green
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter
1 cup sugar
5 large eggs
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. pure lemon extract

Chop fruit and nuts and dredge with flour (I cut the cherries in half and cut the pineapple wedges in half.) Dredge with 1/4 cup of flour. (This takes a humongus bowl...even my largest pyrex bowl isn't big enough, but I have an extra, extra large glass mixing bowl that I use.)

Cream butter and sugar, and add eggs one at a time, beating after each. Combine remaining 1 1/2 cups flour and baking powder and add to butter, sugar, and egg mixture. Stir in the vanilla and lemon extracts. Stir in fruit and nuts.

Pour into greased 10" tube pan or two loaf pans and put in cold oven, set at 250* and bake for two hours if using a tube pan and an hour and a half if using loaf pans.

I have made this cake 5 times....three times using a regular oven and twice in a Nesco...and it takes considerably longer to bake than the times given. So, I say bake it at 250* until the top is well set and it tests done.

I just added this to the Cake & Pie Recipes Cakes & Pies

Rita, yes my family are all from England. I'm the first US born generation. Maybe my cousin has the recipe. I can hope.

sort of made mine up...date nut bread mix as the base and chopped fruit, minus the citron....

I like this one from King Arthur Flour :https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/golden-fruitcake-recipe

I adore a good fruitcake and this is one my mother made for many years.

WHITE FRUITCAKE

2 1/2 sticks butter (not margarine)

2 cups sugar

6 egg yolks

2 1/2 cups flour (reserve 1/2 cup of this for sprinkling over the fruit and nuts)

2 - 2oz bottles lemon extract. Yes, I DID say - 2 entire bottles!

1 lb candied cherries, half red, half green

1 lb candied pineapple, diced

2 lbs pecans - chopped coarsely

1 /2 box white/yellow raisins

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg yolks. Add lemon extract, alternating with flour. Mix batter well.

Add floured fruit and nuts to mixture and mix well.

Bake in either 4 loaf pans or an angel food cake pan at 250° or until tooth pick comes out clean. Better to slightly under-bake than over-bake - it will be dry.

Wrap in cheese cloth that has been soaked in rum or brandy. If you prefer non-alcoholic, use orange juice. Refrigerate for at least a month. Slice very thinly.

We make Dundee Cakes every year:

Mrs. Boland's Dundee Cake

2 sticks of unsalted butter, at room temperature

2/3 c. sugar

4 eggs

2 T. fresh orange juice (I also add the zested peel)

1 t. vanilla

1/2 c. blanched chopped almonds

2 1/2 c. cake flour

1/2 t. salt

1 t. baking powder

1 c. raisins (I use a mixture of dark and golden)

1 1/2 c. currants (if I can't find them I just use 2 c. raisins -- one dark/one golden)

1/2 c. ctiron, chopped (I often use just candied orang peel)

1/2 c. candied cherries

Preheat oven to 275. Grease and flour 2 41/2 x 9 inch loaf pans. (I always use 4 small loaf pans)

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar, mixing well. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating 5 mintues after each egg. Stir in orange juice, vanilla and almonds (this is when I stir in the zest).

Sift eh flour, salt and baking powder into a large bowl. Add the fruit and mix by hand until well floured. Add the fruit to the butter/sugar mixture and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pans. Decorate with cherries and almonds in festive designs.

Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven. Check with doneness with a toothpick or cake tester.

The little cakes take a lot less time -- I just watch and pull them when the toothpick comes out clean.

DO NOT OVERBAKE! When the cakes are done, cool in pans for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely. When cool, wrap in aluminum foil and freeze.

i think i was only one of 9 grandkids who enjoyed fruit cake with my grandmother.

this recipe is a bit expensive to make and labor intensive but very good.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/free-range-fruitcake-recipe-1926833

This one is awesome

Light Fruit Cake

3 cups shredded coconut

1 ½ cups candied cherries (halved)

1 ½ cups candied pineapple (diced)

1 ½ cups white raisins

1 ½ cups slivered, blanched almonds (toasted)

2 2/3 cups flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

2 cups sugar

1 cup butter

1 tsp. almond extract

4 eggs

1 cup pineapple juice

Grease and line a tube pan with 2 layers of brown paper. Grease again. Prepare coconut, fruit and almonds. Mix flour, baking powder and salt. Add coconut, fruit and nuts. Mix. Cream sugar, butter and almond extract thoroughly. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. Stir flour mixture into creamed mixture alternately with pineapple starting and ending with flour mixture. Mix thoroughly. Spread batter evenly in pan. Bake at 275 degree oven for 3 – 3 ½ hours or until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean. Keep a pan of hot water in bottom of oven while baking. Cool cake in pan. Remove paper liner and wrap well. Bake mini loaves about 65 min. Makes 8 mini loaves. Check after about 1 hour.

Thanks for posting it, JoAnn. If you try it, let me know. I am getting ready to make one in a few days.

Sooo, I want to make all these fruitcakes. Do I have. a problem?

Mine freezes well. I can't stop eating it, if I don't put at least half of it in the freezer. I cut it in slices and then freeze them individually. Nita....from KT makes it and she bakes it in a large baking dish, like 9 x 13 and that also cuts down on the time to bake and is easy to cut in serving pieces.

I am so craving a slice of fruit cake (ok, two slices) with a cup of black tea 1/4 teaspoon sugar and lots of cream.

Does the rum or brandy soaked cheesecloth act as a preservative?

Marilyn, you need not freeze fruitcake - it will keep well wrapped in the refrigerator for a couple of years, if regularly "basted" with the booze of ones choice. Fruitcake is always best very thinly sliced. It's also gorgeous that way - looks like stained glass.

I don't care for fruit cake, but everyone raved about my mother's fruit cake! Here's her recipe:

FRUIT CAKE

½ pound candied cherries
½ pound mixed fruits
½ pound candied pineapple
7 oz. White seeded raisins
½ pound California walnuts (1/2-1 cup)
½ pound pecans (1 cup)
½ cup brazil nuts
1/4 cup black walnuts
1/4 cup flour (dredge fruit in)
½ pound butter (2 sticks)
½ cup sugar (not quite)
½ cup honey
5 well beaten eggs
1-1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice

Shred fruit peel, halve cherries, nuts and cut pineapple and citron size of almonds. Dredge fruit in 1/4 cup flour, cream shortening and sugar, add honey, then eggs and beat well. Add flour and dry ingredients, alternately with fruit juice. Beat thoroughly. Pour batter over floured fruits and mix well. Line greased pan with heavy brown paper allowing ½ inch above all sides of pan. Pour batter in pans and do not flatten. Bake slow oven - 250̊ for 3 to 4 hours. Place pan containing water on bottom shelf while baking. Take water our of oven the last hour of baking.

Makes 5 pounds.

Cake should cook in about 3 hours. Put decorating on 1 hour before cake is ready.

Marilyn, its in the oven right now. I'm sure it will be great. I added chopped dates. They are not gooey like the ones I've seen before, they seem to be coated with something, they look like walnuts. I got them at Aldi's. So far its almost 2 hours for 2 loaf pans. update to follow. Someone try the Island pecan pie, soooo good! recipe up top.

Fruit cake newb here: can the various candied fruits be found in any (large/general) grocery store? I'm dying to try one of these recipes, but can't decide which -- will start simple, using fruits that I can remember chomping into during my childhood.

it took 2 hrs and 20 min for 2 loaf pans. It's good, thank you!

I actually found the candied cherries at Dollar tree ($1. each) I only used 8 oz (2 small containers) The candied pineapple I found at Save a lot it was $4.49 for 8 oz, I had one in the freezer that was a few yrs old and it was fine. Normally you can find the candied fruit in any large grocery store. Unless you like the citron I would not use it, its a bit bitter. The chopped dates were great, it tasted like walnuts to me. you can also add raisins if you like. I give Marilyn's recipe a 5 Star its really easy and tastes great.

Citron...that's IT! I've never been a picky eater, but remember as a kid always pulling out something "yellowish and clear and yucky tasting" from any fruit cake I ever ate -- never knew what it was til now (and couldn't even tell you what I found so off-putting about it, it's been so long). Is this citron?

If so, will be leaving this ingredient out. (Thanks, JoAnn!)

Yep citron is a citrus fruit. Very bitter. Leave it out of any fruit cake I'm eating. Not that I'm eating of any of you all's fruit cake unless you have a nice cup of hot tea to go with it. LOL.

Anglo has the perfect home to sit and drink tea and eat fruit cake. lol.

Javiwa, try the Free Range Fruit cake mentioned in a couple of other posts. I jut picked up all the ingredients at Trader Joe's.

sushipup1... i'm sure you will like the results. some of the dried fruit is pretty price... like the dried cherries. you can swap out more raisins (regular or yellow) for some of the currents.

I posted the same recipe before in this thread, and I've made it before.

I'm glad you liked it JoAnn.

Anglo, it is not a traditional fruitcake...doesn't have the spices or all the extra fruit. My mother used to make one like that....raisins, dates, and I think even figs in it. I think she also soaked it in bourbon. I don't like that kind. I have mentioned my "food weirdnesses" before. I don't eat anything that has been in the refrigerator or anywhere else for several days....much less a couple of years. Three days is at the top of the limit with me. Ditto booze soaked. This is more like a rich cake with candied fruit and a lot of walnuts or pecans. I don't like regular fruitcake.

TY, sushipup. I'll wait til after Thanksgiving before venturing forth to the local TJs. I'm sure it'll be a zoo there this coming week.

Hint: go first thing in the morning!

javiwa, yes that is citron, its also red & green I think. leave them out. You will like Marilyns recipe. I didn't add any spices to mine and its fine. Like I said the dates I used tasted great, it tasted more like walnets then anything. These had a coating on them so they even looked like walnuts. I didn't use raisins since the lady I made it for doesn't like them. She loved the fruit cake.

This is not exactly Fruit Cake...I really have never cared for the 'true' fruit cake with alcohol added. This freezes well and should be if keeping it for any length of time. This heavily 'cranberried' loaf is a family and friends favorite. The little loaves are great to add to cookie tray gifts.

Hmm...there are alcohol (Alton Brown's...a whopping 1 c rum!) and non-alcohol versions. I don't know which type I enjoyed as a kid. May have to make one of each version. :)

I was just looking in my recipe note book and found my mother-in-laws fruit cake, Its excellent. easy and it will last forever in the freezer. Not much cake to it mostly fruit & nuts.

Grace's Fruit cake

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup plain flour

1 1/2 ts vanilla

1 ts salt

1 ts Baking powder

1/2 LB candied cherries

1/2 Lb candied pineapple

1 QT pecans

beat eggs, sugar, vailla, flour, Baking powder, salt together. Mix with fruit & nuts

bake 350 degrees 45 min. (I'm not positive on the time or temp, it may be at 250 degrees or longer) Give it the toothpick test.

Now I wish I had found this one first, I know its good. I am enjoying Marilyn's though.

For more Holiday recipes go to the holiday page Holiday Recipes

Y'all are killing me! I love fruitcake. My husband does not. My oldest grandson cannot eat it (it hits all of his allergy triggers). Most of the rest probably wouldn't even try. How can I try them all, including mine? Oh well, I guess I will have to suffer in the name of research.

I'll be making a couple of batches of Alton Brown's free range fruitcake this week as well.

One of these days I'll make a fruit cake. I want to let one cure a month or so wrapped in burbon soaked cheesecloth...a few times. LOL

Feeling quite homesick. Auntie Eileen always made her Christmas cake. Very similar to an Irish wedding cake. We saved our top tier of our wedding cake until our first child was baptized. Three years later. It tasted so so good.

I have craved fruit cake since this thread started.Walmart sells little sliced ones in the produce dept . I know they are mass produced, full of chemicals and not very tasty but what can I say...the craving was bad. LOL. Hubs bought me one today and I just opened it. First thing that struck me was the odd greenish color second was how wet and sticky it was...like glue. Than the smell hit me. It smelled like rotton meat. Not mold..rotton meat....just totally gross.

Ahw, Sherry_7bAL, the fruitcake allergy triggers brought back a sad post Christmas memory. All the kids in my family were allergic to egg until the preteen to post teen years. But my younger sister was (and still is) also allergic to grains. There was so much she could not eat. I remember a few days after Christmas we were at my grandmother's and her bazillion sisters were in the living room enjoying the fruitcake grandma had been periodically soaking in rum (I think) for weeks before the holidays.

For women who'd grown up eating not much more than beans, pork, corn bread, potatoes, and biscuits--- fruitcake was some sort of heaven on earth. They were all taking little bites, dropping their heads backward, and practically collapsing in their chairs, overcome by fruitcake ecstasy. Now, I'd tasted fruitcake and did not like it at all. But I saw my little sister looking on with the most hurt, longing little face. She so wanted to try that fruitcake. But it was a forbidden fruit....cake.

I like fruitcake now, but I have had some bad ones. I particularly do not like under cooked fruitcake. The candied fruits so ridiculously infused with food dye are kind of gross, too.

Oh, yuck, mama! I thought your story was going to have a happy ending. How sweet of Mr. mamapinky0, though. :)

Hehe..Haha...LOL. Wellll..I did threaten him bodily harm if he didn't bring me fruit cake...I suppose I deserved to be given a spoiled cake. Haha.

Meta Givens has a pretty good fruit cake recipe. It used the candied fruits, golden raisins, nuts, regular dark raisins, molasses, etc. You bake it, then douse it with some fruit flavored brandy and then decorate it if desired, and you can also put a glaze over it as well. Using the brandy or other choice alcohol helps set it and ripen it, and it freezes well, but you have to let it ripen for 4 weeks first. If you would like the recipe, I would be happy to give it to you. The recipe is pretty large, but I could certainly cut it down for you, or you could do that yourself if you wanted to. Oh heck, I'm going to just give you the recipe. I was trying to get away without having to type it all out because I'm really tired from being up all night baking this fruit cake of all things as well as some cheesecakes. lol.

OLD FASHIONED
FRUITCAKE:

original recipe divided by 4, all ingredients should be at
room temperature.

Soak Fruit overnight in ½ cup of medium syrup, about 24
hours to soften fruit: recipe at bottom.

Fruit mix:

3 ¼ -oz. seedless raisins = ¼ box 15 oz. seedless raisins

7 ½-oz. Golden raisins = ½ box golden raisins

1 6 – 8 oz. pkg pitted dates, cut into slices

½ lbs. candied citron = 8 oz.

¼ lbs. candied pineapple = 4 oz.

1 oz. candied orange peel

1 oz. candied lemon peel

2 oz. candied cherries

2 oz. blanched almonds slices

Mix dry ingredients
together:

1 ½ cups flour, sifted

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt less a pinch

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp allspice

2 shakes of ground cloves, the original amount is ½ tsp

2 shakes of ground nutmeg, the original amount is ½ tsp

2 shakes of mace, the original amount is ½ tsp

Cream together:

½ stick of butter or 4 TBSP

¼ cup Brown sugar plus 2 tsp, packed

1 egg

2 oz. currant jelly, but apple jelly or other jelly may be
substituted.

¼ cup light molasses

3 oz. buttermilk alternating with dry ingredients

Add wet ingredients to dry and mix in candied fruits.

To make syrup,
heat ¼ cup sugar and ½ cups water to boiling, then simmer 5 minutes. Add 2 ½ tsp white corn syrup. The full recipe makes 2 large fruit cakes
loaf pans plus 7 of the half-sized loaf pans.
This is enough batter to make a large tube pan cake.

Prepare your pans by lining them with parchment paper or
take a brown grocery sack and cut it to the shape of your pan, or use brown
wrapping paper and cut it to shape of pans covering all sides and leave 1 inch
over top edge to help get cake out of pan if using loaf pans. Butter inside of pans to help adhere paper
liner to them. Brush on a little whole
milk on top, to help keep cakes from browning on top too much and to help give
it a nice shine. Bake fruitcake between 275˟F.
and 325˟F. for about 1 hour, or until done depending on the size of your
baking pan, but do not go higher than 325˟F.
Put a pan of hot water on bottom rack of oven when baking fruit cake. If they start to get too brown, add a piece
of foil over them or parchment paper.

*Note! It is much easier to just get one of
the small containers of chopped mix fruit to use in recipe plus the dates and
raisins added extra. I always make the
full recipe, plus I add the dates and raisins, plus about 1/3 of a container of
candied red cherries as the fruit mix already has red and green candied
cherries. I use the rest to decorate the
cake after I glaze it. I use apricot
brandy to drizzle on top of the fruitcake, then make an apricot glaze to add on
top, then add my halved candied cherries on top and or whole pecans to decorate
the fruit cakes. Wrap them in plastic
wrap and let them ripen in a cool dark place.
After 4 weeks you can wrap freezer paper around them or heavy-duty foil
and freeze them. We’ve had fruitcake
last in the fridge for a full year due to the brandy and sugar content. They were perfectly fine, and I’ve also
frozen them. Either way is fine.

Apricot Glaze:

½ cup cold water

1 cup white sugar

2 oz. chopped apricots

Boil for about 5 minutes the add ¼ cup white corn
syrup and cook for another 1 minute. I add
a little apricot brandy to it once it’s cooled down slightly for more flavor.

You lost me at "candied" fruit.

That's why I like the Alton Brown recipe, no candied fruit.

I tried to put a note on mine above, but it wouldn't let me. I no longer recommend the Jeweled Fruit cake. The last time I made it, it was fantastic. They must of changed the Pillsbury bread mix, because this year it was so dry and funky tasting, I just tossed it. I can't even delete the post. I am so bummed out, because a friend gave me the recipe and it was so good and so easy. I wish that the companies would quit messing with the ingredients.