Cake Recipes: Fruit 40 by Recipe Cottage

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	Fruit 40

		Black Fruit Cake 1 1/2 lb superfine sugar 1 1/2 lb butter 24 eggs, beaten 1/2 cup Jamaican rum 1 1/2 lbs sifted flour 2 lbs raisins 2 lbs Zante currants, washed and dried 1 lb preserved citron, slice thin 1/4 oz ground cloves 1 1/2 lb preserved orange and lemon peel 3 whole nutmegs, grated 1/2 oz (1 Tbsp) ground mace 1/2 oz powdered cinnamon Cream together powdered sugar and butter. Stir eggs, rum and flour into the above. Stir and beat this mixture well and then add the remaining ingredients. Mix all ingredients together very well and bake in a well-buttered mold or pan for 5 1/2 hours at a slow heat. To quote the words of the century old recipe: "This cake is vastly improved by age -- those intended for Christmas festivities should be made about the first of October; then put cake in a round tin box half and inch larger in diameter than the cake; then pour over it a bottle of the best Brandy, mixed with half a pint of pure lemon, raspberry, strawberry or simple syrup and one or more bottles of Champagne. Now put on lid and have it carefully soldered on, so as to be perfectly air tight. Put it away in your storeroom and let it stand until Christmas, only reversing the box occasionally in order that the liquors may permeate the cake thoroughly. This heroic treatment causes the ingredients to amalgamate and the flavors to harmonize and blend more freely; and when on Christmas Day you bring out this hermit, after doing a 3 months' penance in a dark cell, it will come out rich, succulent and unctuous; you will not only have a luxury 'fit to set' before a king or before the Emperor of India, but fit to crown a feast of the very Gods themselves on High Olympus' top" To bring this ancient recipe up to date, you can use the electric mixer and bake in several pans instead of one large one. Also candied pineapple can be used. THIS MAKES 15 LBS OF CAKE.