In the foreword to “The Jackson Cookbook” (1971), Eudora Welty wrote that each Christmas she baked a white fruitcake from a recipe her mother had gotten from a friend.
“What took me so long to bake Mrs. Mosal’s fruitcake?” I wondered, as I chopped the candied cherries and pecans and reached to the back of the cabinet for the bottle of whiskey. I have adapted the recipe only slightly, keeping the red and green cherries but using fewer of them. What you get is a lovely and festive fruitcake drenched in bourbon, and after one bite, it will change your mind about fruitcake. Slice and serve with boiled custard.
Fruitcake has many faces. In “Mrs. Porter’s New Southern Cookery-Book” (1871), Mary Elizabeth Porter mentions several kinds of fruitcakes: light (white), like this one, or dark (black), as well as Yankee (with butter and white sugar) or Confederate (with lard and molasses). Sally White fruitcake has coconut and almonds, and Japanese fruit cake isn’t really a fruitcake at all but more of a unique layer cake with a citrus and coconut filling popular in the Deep South.
Fruitcake making was once an annual affair, just like winterizing your house or putting chains on the tires of the car to prepare for snow days ahead. If baked and soaked in bourbon at Thanksgiving, the fruitcake would be ready for slicing by Christmas.
Plan ahead: Bake this cake several days to weeks before serving so it can soak in the liquor.
Prep Time: 40 to 45 minutes Bake Time: About 2 hours
- Soft butter and flour for prepping the pan (see Note)
- 1 pound mixed dried fruit of your choice (currants, raisins, dried apricots, dried cherries, or red and green candied cherries)
- 2 cups (228 grams) pecan halves or chopped pecans
- 2 cups (240 grams) all-purpose flour, divided
- 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks/170 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 cup bourbon or brandy, plus more for soaking the cake
Heat the oven to 250°F, with a rack in the middle. Grease and flour a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan.
Chop the fruit into small, uniform pieces, 1/4 to 1/2 inch in size. Place in a small bowl. Chop the pecans into the same size pieces and place in a separate bowl. Toss the fruit with 1/2 cup of the flour. Set aside.
Place the butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. With the machine running, add the eggs, one at a time, and beat on low until incorporated. Add the vanilla and beat until blended.
Whisk the baking powder and nutmeg into the remaining 1 1/2 cups flour. Add the flour mixture alternately with the bourbon or brandy to the butter mixture, mixing on low until just blended. Fold in the fruit and pecans. Turn into the prepared pan.
Bake until the cake is firm and very lightly brown, about 2 hours. The interior temperature should be 200°F on an instant-read thermometer. Remove from the oven and, while hot, drizzle over additional bourbon or brandy. Let the cake cool in the pan for 30 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of the pan, then invert the cake once and then again so it cools right side up on the rack. Let cool completely before serving, about 1 hour.
To store, wrap in clean cheesecloth. Place in a metal tin and store covered in a cool place for up to a month. Each week, pour another 1/4 cup bourbon or brandy over the cake, if desired.
Note: Back when my mother and grandmother baked fruitcakes, they would grease the loaf or tube pans with butter and then line them with brown paper. I remember seeing the paper peeled off the sides of the baked fruitcake and my mother telling me it was to protect the cake from overbaking and keep the edges soft.
Boiled Custard
I grew up with boiled custard on Christmas Eve, served in punch cups with fruitcake and pound cake. It was a Middle Tennessee holiday tradition, a gentler version of eggnog, and you can make it without any alcohol, as I am sure my Presbyterian grandmother did.
You’re not going to find it in every Southern cookbook because it is so regional. But you will find it in Tennessee and Mississippi cookbooks, and the recipe I settled on is from “Being Dead Is No Excuse” (2005) by Gayden Metcalfe and Charlotte Hays. They call it Bourbon Boiled Custard, but as I said, not everyone puts bourbon in it. But if they do, it’s gonna be good, especially with Mrs. Mosal’s White Fruitcake, baba au rhum, Christmas black cake, and festive cookies.
Prep: 20 to 25 minutes Cook: 10 to 14 minutes Chill: At least 4 hours
- 1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 4 large eggs
- Big pinch of salt
- 3 cups whole milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup bourbon (optional)
Place the sugar and flour in a large, heavy saucepan or in the top of a double boiler (see Note). Whisk in the eggs and the salt until smooth.
Place the milk in a separate saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat, letting bubbles form around the edges of the pan, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the cream.
Ladle 1/2 cup at a time of the warm milk mixture into the egg mixture and whisk to combine. Place the pan with the eggs over low heat or over simmering water in the double boiler. Stir with a flat spatula until the mixture creates steam and thickens enough to coat a spoon, 10 to 14 minutes, or 170 to 175°F on an instant-read thermometer.
Remove the pan from the heat and pour the custard into a glass bowl. Stir in the vanilla and bourbon, if desired. Place in the refrigerator to chill for at least 4 hours. Serve as a beverage in small cups or as a sauce.
The trick is to keep the water at a simmer, not a boil, and to make sure the water is not touching the bottom of the bowl or the insert holding the custard. It takes a little longer to thicken with the double boiler, but every pan and stove is different. You are looking for a just-thickened custard that coats the spoon. It will thicken more as it cools.
