CHRISTMAS CAKES

When I was growing up we always looked forward to my maternal grandmother's fruit cake - except for the candied fruit. The cake was wonderful but the candied cherries, etc. were just a little too much, too sweet and well, a little icky in kids speak.  So....over the years I have tweaked the recipe to what I have made for many years now, and have come to call it Christmas cake, because if you call it fruit cake, no matter how good it is, it runs the risk of becoming a door stopper!

This really is a very simple cake to make and the yield is large. Because you use mayonnaise it replaces eggs and oil or butter. Please note the Pam for baking, you could also use Bakers Joy, they both work with the bundt pans, just make sure that you get the product into all the nooks and crannies. I do not ever use soap or scrub on bundt pans - I was them thoroughly with hot water.
 
The recipe calls for two cups of nuts and I like to use a variety of nuts depending on what I have on hand. This year I used pecans, pepitas, almonds and pistachios and then walnuts - walnuts are always the biggest amount.  I sometimes use pine nuts.  I like the flavor brought out by the variety of nuts.

A rough chop - you just want to make sure you do not have any whole nuts.

In your biggest bowl mix the flour and spices with a whisk.

Then whisk in the sugar.

Finally mix the vanilla with the water and mayo and pour into the dry ingredients.  Mix until fully incorporated and add the nuts, cranberries and raisins.

I had intended to make the bundt that looks like a gift and then smaller cakes but at the last minute decided to make two big cakes and then two smaller cakes.

I baked all of the cakes at the same time in a 350° oven and this smaller cake was ready at 45 minutes.

 This larger and more dense cake took the full one hour to bake.

The two little cakes took about 35 minutes.  As soon a my cake tester came out clean, I knew they were done.

Don't you love the tags?  I will put a link below for the digital file from a friend on Etsy who has the most amazing products for download and to mail to you.  I just printed out a sheet of these tags on-off white cardstock and voila I had a sheet of tags.

CHRISTMAS CAKE RECIPE

1 quart of sugar

1 quart regular mayonnaise

2 quarts flour

1 quart water

4 tsp soda

4 tsp vanilla

4 tsp ground allspice

4 tsp ground nutmeg

4 tsp cinnamon

3 cups chopped nuts*

3 cups chopped raisins & Craisins*

In your biggest bowl mix all the dry ingredients with a whisk until well combined, mix in the fruits until they are all incorporated (the flour on the nuts and fruit will insure that they distribute well within the cake and are not stuck together, make sure you have no clumps). Make a big "well" in the center of the mixture and pour in the mayonnaise (DO NOT use anything but full fat mayo because this is the only fat in the cake) and the water.  Pour into greased and floured pans and bake for one hour.

Depending on your size pans you will get a substantial yield from this recipe.

Last year mine made one bundt and the seven cakes in the Panibois. This year one bundt, one large cake and two small cakes in bakers paper pans.

Just don't tell anyone it's a "Fruitcake"

*I use a mixture of nuts - almonds, pecans, walnuts, pistachios, sometimes pepitas & pine nuts - a mixture of whatever I have on hand. I place all the nuts and the fruit on a cutting board and give them a good chop - some dates are also good in this but I usually stick to the Craisins and raisins. My grandmother put the traditional candied cherries & citron in her cake. I loved her cake but not the candied fruit so I choose not to use.

Bundt 350 for about 1 hour - small ones about 35 mins

Depending on your size pans you will get a substantial yield from this recipe.

 
Resource

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