Christmas Cake

Total Time:

1 hr 45 min

Prep

30 min

Cook

1 hr 15 min

Yield:

10 servings

Level:

Intermediate

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound unsalted butter
• 1/2 pound light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons lime juice
• 1 teaspoon lime zest
• 6 eggs
• 6 ounces fresh bread crumbs
• 6 ounces flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup rum
• 1 pint Port
• 4 cups mixed marinated fruit, recipe follows, squeezed and finely chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the vanilla, lime juice, and lime zest. Add the eggs 1 at a time, and incorporate well. Combine bread crumbs, flour, all the spices, baking powder, and salt. Combine rum and port. Add flour mixture alternately with rum/port mixture into the batter. Fold in the chopped marinated fruit.
Prepare 1 (9-inch) cake pan or 2 spring form pans by lining bottom and sides with parchment paper. Fill the pan 3/4 of the way and bake until a skewer comes out of the center of the cake clean, about 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Mixed Marinated Fruit:

• 1 pound black raisins
• 1 pound golden raisins
• 1 pound prunes, cut in quarters or eighths, depending on size
• 4 cinnamon sticks
• 2 vanilla beans, split
• Jamaican white rum
• Jamaican spiced rum
• Port

Put raisins, prunes, cinnamon sticks, and vanilla beans in a glass jar and cover with mixture of equal parts Jamaican white rum, Jamaican spiced rum, and Port. Cover with a tight fitting lid, label, and date the jar. Put in a cool, dry cupboard. From time to time, check the fruits to see if more liquor is needed, as the fruits will plump and soak up the liquid.

Keep the fruit covered in liquor. It is best to allow the fruit to marinate for at least 1 month for best flavor.