FRUITCAKE MAKEOVER
Updating a Yule tradition
Like plum pudding and mince tarts, the idea, the smell and the look of these Christmas favourites are as comforting as a fireplace fronted by a Labrador retriever with Bing Crosby tunes playing in the background.
But one bite of most fruitcakes and that Christmas dream dissolves real fast. The crumbly texture, the waxy glacé cherries, the army-surplus green bits of mystery candied fruit, the bitter orange rind all combine to make the most unpleasant mouth feel, with an excess of molasses and spice adding to the icky factor.
As much as some adore traditional fruitcake, others are all too happy to repeat the old Johnny Carson joke: “The worst gift is a fruitcake. There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other.”
All too aware of fruitcake averse types, Montreal’s Ken Ilasz has been rethinking the traditional fruitcake since he began baking them commercially eight years ago.
“I started off making cakes for family members using my grandmother’s recipe,” he says.
“My mother was a great baker and she brought these cakes to church basement bake sales when I was a kid in Toronto. I don’t see fruit cake as a Christmas cake, I think of it as a festive cake for all seasons.”
Though Ilasz based his production on his grandmother’s recipe, he has taken his fruitcake offerings in all sorts of directions.
“I now make nine flavours,” he says, “yet the most popular remains the traditional fruitcake but made with maple syrup. The ‘Epiphany’ cake is also a good seller, and that one is made with Kirsch-infused dried choke cherries from Saskatchewan and cranberries grown in Quebec, and contains no molasses or spices. It’s surprising how many people don’t like spice.”
Other inventive cake combinations include the Toucan, made with maple syrup, Brazilian chocolate and candied ginger, and the Skvortsov, filled with haskap berries, macadamia nuts, apricots and walnuts.
By breaking out of the traditional fruitcake profile, Ilasz’s aim is not only to re-think a classic but draw in new customers.
“I want to sell to a younger crowd,” he says, “the people who haven’t even heard of fruitcake because their parents never made it. I see my mission as educating people about fruitcake and the best way to do that is through quality.”
When eating fruitcake, Ilasz likes his cut thin and layered with slices of aged cheddar cheese, or better yet, with a nugget of foie gras and a drizzle of maple syrup.
“People come back here year after year,” says Ilasz, “and they thank me for this cake because it reminds them of their childhood. To the others I say, ‘just try it.’ ”
To order Ilasz’s fruitcake by mail, go to kensfruitcake.com.
KEN’S LIGHT FRUITCAKE
Makes: Six 2-lb cakes
This recipe can be easily halved to make 3 cakes that you can share with friends and family. For the fruit mix:
1 lb (454 g) walnuts
1 lb (454 g) dried apricots
1 lb (454 g) dried cranberries
1 lb (454 g) currants
2 lbs (907 g) raisins (use a mix of Thompson & sultana raisins) Rum to macerate
For the cake batter:
1/2 lb (1 cup or 250 mL)
unsalted butter
1/2 lb (1 cup or 250 mL) vegetable shortening
1 lb (2 1/4 cups, or 560 mL, packed) brown sugar
10 oz (14 tbsp or 210 mL) liquid honey
4 cups (1 L) whole liquid eggs (or 18 large, whisked until smooth)
1 lb 4 oz (4 1/2 cups or 1 1/8 L) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (125 mL) rum ( for brushing the cakes once baked)
1. At least a month in advance macerate all the dried fruit in enough rum to moisten but not soak the fruit. Cover and store in a cool dark place.
2. Preheat oven to 325 F (160 C). Place a deep pan filled with hot water on the lower rack. Butter and lightly flour six 8-by-4-by-2 cake moulds.
3. Hand chop the walnuts and macerated apricots to about twice the size of the raisins, then combine all the macerated fruit and nuts in a large mixing bowl by hand (reserve any extra alcohol that may have accumulated under the macerated fruit).
4. In the bowl of a mixmaster or in a bowl using a hand mixer, cream butter and shortening together on medium speed, then add the brown sugar. Gradually add honey and blend until smooth. Gradually add the whole eggs followed by 1 cup of the flour to thicken the mixture a bit.
5. Pour the batter in the mixer bowl over the fruit and nut mix, then add the remaining flour.
Mix by hand until smooth. Avoid overworking the mixture.
6. Divide the mixture evenly among the six moulds. You should get 2 pounds (1 kg) of mix per mould. Bake cakes for 2 1/2 hours until they crack open at the top. Using a pastry brush, immediately brush the top of each cake generously with rum once they are removed from the oven.
7. Allow to cool 1 hour before removing the cake from the mould, then wrap the cakes, either in plastic wrap or in cheesecloth soaked in another good brushing of rum.
8. Cakes can be stored, wrapped, for 6 weeks — ideally — or longer in cool dry environment (a cellar is ideal for this).
Notes: The longer the fruitcake is aged, the better, so consider making them now for 2018.