NOT YOUR GRANDMA'S FRUITCAKE

THE BEST EVER FRUIT AND NUT CAKE !!!

i'm not kidding..i thought i'd never see the day that i #1 ate fruitcake let alone #2 made a fruitcake...but this one is well worth it..trust me. i wanted a challenge and the ever so popular...NOT! fruitcake was on my mind...could i possibly make a reasonably good fruitcake? better yet..WOULD i ever make a fruitcake ? then i spotted this one @ Blue Ridge Baker adapted from a recipe by Alice Medrich. Sarah the blogger (great blog by the way. stop in and check her out) reeled me in on this one not just by the craggy-cool photo of her slice, but also her simple explanation that straight out states that this fruitcake will change anyone's mind about the touted fruitcake of yore....

directly below is the original recipe from Blue Ridge Baker

below that are my adds and changes

DRIED FRUIT AND NUT CAKE
adapted from Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich
1/2 cup unbleached white flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup palm sugar (though next time I will use more like 1/3 - 1/2 cup)
1 cup dried fruit (I used un-sulphured apricots, cherries and figs) chopped into medium-sized pieces.
2 cups medjool dates, quartered
3 cups walnut halves
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large eggs
Preheat oven to 300. Line a 9" x 5" loaf pan with parchment. Combine flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt and palm sugar in large bowl. Add dried fruit and nuts and toss with your hands. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs and vanilla extract. Pour into large bowl, toss until all of the fruit and nuts appear well-coated. It will not look like there is enough batter to form a cake, but trust me, there is. Pour into prepared loaf pan, and smooth as well as you can. Bake for about 1 hour 15 - 1 hour 20 minutes. If it looks like it is browning too quickly, place a foil tent over it. After removing from oven, let the cake sit in the load pan for about 5 minutes, then, using the edges of the parchment, lift the loaf out and cool on rack for 45 minutes before cutting into it.

BELOW IS MY VERSION WITH ADDS AND CHANGES

the directions are the same but i added quite a few things that i think worked reeeeeally well. i added quite a bit more fruit and nuts and the small amount of batter took to it and held it all together.

1/2 cup unbleached white flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

i used 1/2 cup slightly packed light brown sugar instead of palm sugar

added 1/2 tsp cardamom

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp cayenne

1 1/2 cups dates-quartered

3/4 cup golden California figs-diced large

2/3 c. dried cranberries

2/3 c. dried apricots-diced large

1 3/4 walnut halves

1 1/2 cups pecans

1/4 cup pine nuts

2 tsp vanilla

3 large eggs

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