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We called my grandmother Campbell Buppy because that was what my father called her when he was a baby. Like everyone else in her large Alabama family, Buppy loved to cook. She made the world’s best fried chicken, and her southern-style green beans and black-eyed peas were the highlights of Sunday dinner. This recipe for dark, rich fruit cake dates back at least to the mid-nineteenth century and is a Christmas family tradition. Be patient with yourself. Cutting all that fruit into thin slivers takes a long time!
Buppy’s Fruit Cake
½ lb. butter
½ lb. brown sugar
5 eggs, separated
3 cups flour
½ cup fruit juice
1 cup jam
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. ginger
½ tsp. cloves |
½ tsp. allspice
1½ tsp. cinnamon
2 cups shelled nuts
½ lb. citron
½ lb. dates
1¼ lb. raisins
¼ lb. currants
Candied pineapple, lemon, and orange to taste |
- Cream butter and sugar.
- Add beaten egg yolks.
- Mix baking soda in jam, and then add to the batter.
- Add sifted flour and spices.
- Add fruit juice.
- Beat egg whites to stiff peaks, and then fold into batter.
- In one tube cake pan or two loaf pans, pour a layer of batter, followed by a layer of slivered fruit and nuts, followed by a layer of batter, and so forth.
- Bake at 325 degrees for an hour or longer (until toothpick comes out clean).
- When cool, wrap the cakes in brandy-soaked cheesecloth and foil and keep refrigerated.
- Make Christmas cakes in the fall, and add more brandy weekly.
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