Orange-Cranberry-Nut Fruit Cake

Are you all ready for Christmas?  I am!  We always have a mellow Christmas celebration and my husband and I always emphasize the importance of the birth of Jesus instead of having lots of gifts under the tree.  It helps with all the craziness that's going on around the season.  It really doesn't matter if we have many gifts or only one.  We tell our son that the important things is to be with family and enjoy the season by doing something good.  I digress.

Every Christmas I try to bake a fruitcake.  I have a couple of favorite recipes but this year I wanted to try something new.  This recipe is a keeper.  As it stated in the original King Arthur Flour website, this is more of a cake than a traditional fruitcake.  I do like the light version of fruitcake but I don't mind the dark one if it's being offered to me :)

My family likes fruitcake as well so they're looking forward to it every year.  And even my son commented that this was a good one!

Orange-Cranberry-Nut Fruit Cake

Fruit:
2 cups dried cranberries
2 cups dried fruits (I chose a combination of golden raisins, dried currants, dried apricots, and candied citron)
1/2 cup orange liqueur
1 3/4 cups candied red cherries

Cake:
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon orange oil
4 large eggs
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup orange juice
2 cups diced pecans

Glaze:
1/3 cup orange juice
1/3 cup suagr

Icing:
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
Enough milk to make a thick but pourable icing


Prepare the fruit:  Combine dried fruits with orange liqueur in a bowl.  Cover and microwave for 1 to 2 minutes, stir, then set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 325 degree F.

Prepare the cake:  In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light-colored and fluffy.  Beat in the baking powder, salt, and flavors.

Beat in the eggs one at a time.  Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, and beat again briefly, to incorporate any sticky residue.

Stir in the flour alternately with the orange juice.

Stir in the undrained fruit, the candied cherries, and pecans.

Lightly grease two 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pans.

Spoon batter into the lightly greased baking pans, filling them about three-quarters full.

Bake the cakes for 50 to 70 minutes.  When done, the cakes will be a light golden brown all over, and a long skewer inserted into the center will come out clean.  If cakes brown too quickly during baking, cover lightly with aluminum foil.

Make the glaze:  Stir together the orange juice and sugar while the cakes are baking.  Warm briefly in the microwave; about 45 seconds.  Stir to help dissolve the sugar.  Set aside to rest at room temperature, stirring occasionally to continue dissolving the sugar.

Remove the cakes from the oven, place on the cooling rack.  Let cool for 10 minutes then turn them out onto the rack.  Brush the warm cakes all over with the glaze, continuing to brush until you've used it all.

When completely cooled, wrap well and let "age" at least 24 hours; the cake improves with a 24-hour rest.

Drizzle with icing just before serving.

Store cake, well wrapped, at room temperature; it should keep for a couple of weeks.  Freeze for longer storage.


Source:  adapted from King Arthur Flour website