Call answered with 3 French fruitcake recipes

Recipes that appear in Idea Alley have not been tested by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

It feels a bit strange to publish fruitcake recipes in August, but here we are.

I did a little more digging in the archives and on the web searching for the elusive Kennedy Inauguration luncheon fruitcake, Patisserie Bateau Blanche for

Debra and found two recipes Clark that are possible contenders. Reader assisted

Kathy Daniel in the search by sending photographs of a half dozen or more recipes from vintage cookbooks including “Picayune Creole Cook Book.”

This is the recipe closest to Clark’s description of Patisserie Bateau Blanche. It is from “Betty Crocker’s New Picture Cook Book” (1961 edition). If you’d like to see the “Picayune Creole Cook Book” recipes, send an email to kbrant@adgnewsroom with “fruitcake” in the subject line and I will forward the images to you.

White Fruitcake

1 ½ cups soft shortening

1 ½ cups sugar

2 ¼ cups unbeaten eggs (about 9)

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

¾ teaspoon salt

2/3 cup orange juice

1 pound white raisins

1 pound candied cherries

¾ pound candied pineapple

¼ pound candied citron

¼ pound candied orange peel

½ pound coconut (about 3 ½ cups)

½ pound blanched almonds ½ pound pecans

Heat oven to 275 degrees. Line with parchment paper and grease two loaf pans.

Cream the shortening and sugar together until fluffy. Beat in eggs.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.

Add flour, alternating with orange juice, to the creamed mixture. Stir in fruits and nuts.

Divide batter between the two pans. Bake 2 ½ to 3 hours or until a wooden tester inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool. Wrap in foil or waxed paper to sore. Glaze (recipe follows), if desired.

Fruitcake Glaze

¼ cup white corn syrup

2 tablespoon water

Combine corn syrup and water in a saucepan and bring just to a rolling boil. Remove from heat and cool to lukewarm. Pour over cold cake before or after storing.

The one is from a Down Idea Alley, as Idea Alley used to be known, column published Nov. 23, 1981:

“This cake is from a recipe published in one of the leading magazines about 20 years ago and shared by one of my friends. I have altered the original recipe because we did not care for so much fruit peel (4 cups).” — Jewel H. Eddins, Des Arc

White Fruitcake

2 cups mixed fruit and peels

2 cups candied cherries, cut in half

½ cup chopped dates

½ cup diced dried apricots

½ cup diced dried figs

1 ½ cups white raisins

2 cups nuts (Eddins uses pecans)

2 cups flaked coconut

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon rum flavoring 6 eggs

½ cup pineapple juice (or rum or bourbon)

Mix the fruits, nuts and coconut.

Sift flour, salt and baking powder together. Dredge fruits with ½ cup of the flour mixture. Set both mixtures aside.

Cream butter, sugar and rum flavoring. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Stir the flour mixture (minus the ½ cup used for dredging) into the creamed mixture, alternately with the pineapple juice.

Gently fold in fruit mixture. Turn batter into a large tube pan or 2 loaf pans. Bake at 275 degrees for 2 to 3 hours with a large pan of hot water in the bottom of the oven. Do not over bake.

I found a reference to this recipe at chowhound.com. Ruthie789 wrote: “Jacqueline Kennedy’s White House recipe for French fruitcake was published years ago in I think the Ladies’s Home Journal. It is a white fruitcake, rich in butter.”

Which led me to this recipe at recipes.epicurean.com.

It is from “The White House Chef Cookbook” but it does not say which edition.

French Fruitcake

1 ¼ cups candied fruits ¾ cup raisins

1 ounce dark rum

1 ¼ cups butter, at room

temperature

1 ½ cups sugar

3 whole eggs

2 egg yolks

1 ½ cups sifted flour

4 egg whites

Mix fruits and raisins with the rum and allow to soak overnight.

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Line 2 loaf pans with parchment paper.

Soften the butter in a large mixing bowl and gradually blend in the sugar. One by one, mix in the 3 eggs and 2 yolks. Mix the flour with the rumsoaked fruits and add this to the butter mixture.

Whip the egg whites very stiff and fold into the batter.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared loaf pans. Bake 45 minutes, or until a wooden tester comes out clean. Halfway through the baking, use a knife to make a slit in the middle of the cake.

Next week: We’ll return to summery recipes with Squash Fritters, Garden Salsa and Pineapple Pie.