Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Great Grandma Nye's Fruitcake

I am posting this recipe exactly as she had it written. I enjoy reading her comments/suggestions. There are many people who do not like fruit cake, but GG Nye's is sincerely "the" best I have ever had. Growing up and as an adult, I remember looking forward to them every Christmas, she made them for years.

1 cup oleo
1 cup white sugar
5 eggs (slightly beaten)
1/2 cup orange juice (fresh or frozen)
1 8 oz jar grape jelly
2 1/2 cups flour (use the 1/2 cup flour in fruit and nuts, add last)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg (or 1/2 tsp allspice)
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups chopped English walnuts
1 lb white raisins (may use dark ones)
1 lb chopped dates (cut up with shears)
4 oz jar or quarter lb each of the following:
red & green cherries (maraschino, chopped or cut up)
red & green pineapple

Cream together oleo and sugar, add jelly, stir well, add orange juice (stir) add slightly beaten eggs (stir), add spices, then flour (1 cup) and baking powder and salt. Add chopped fruit and nuts last, mixed with the 1/2 cup flour.

Grease pans and line (cut to fit pans and sides) with wax paper. Fill pans quite full as cake doesn't raise much. Place oven rack up one notch. Cake must bake slow, around 275 or 300 (depending on oven) for 1 or 1 1/2 hours. This depends on the size pans you use. Smaller pans get done quicker. This cake is very moist and really hard to tell when done. When top of cake is or looks dry, it is done. I use loaf pans one size is 7 1/2 x 3 1/2 x 2 1/4. Smaller one 5 1/2 x 3 1/4 x 2 1/4, you can get 1 large and 4 small or 2 large and 2 small.

I like to get fruit ready and mix raisin in day or night before and put in the fridge. Don't put nuts in though. May freeze cakes. Wrap good.

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