for the very different fruitcake AND for the regional touches that brought back memories. There’s a branch of Bill’s family in Texas that sent us fig preserves every year when the mamaw generation was still alive.

Sybil Lovett’s Fruitcake

1 c Butter 1 ts Cinnamon
2 c Sugar 1 ts Cinnamon
4 c Flour 1 ts Cloves
1 c Strong coffee 3 Eggs
1 Small carton
candied fruit 1 ts Soda
1 c Chopped pecans 1 ts Baking powder
1 c Chopped walnuts 1 10 oz jelly (apple)
1 c Chopped almonds 4 Stewed apples OR
1 lb Raisins 1 Can applesauce
1 qt Fig preserves

Cream butter, sugar, and eggs. Add coffee and stir. Sift together dry ingredients; add slowly, beating well. Add fig preserves, chopped up.

Add nuts, fruits, raisins, jelly, and applesauce; mix thoroughly.

Prepare 2 tube pans or 3 loaf pans by greasing sides and putting wax paper on bottoms. Pour in batter.

Bake in very slow oven (225) 3 1/2 hrs. Check; if not done, raise heat to 250 and bake 30 more minutes.

NOTES:

Use a small carton of mixed candied fruit . . . or as Mamaw put it, 15 cents’ worth of orange, citron, cherries, lemon, and pineapple.

Mamaw said she usually used apple jelly, but I guess you could use another kind (maybe strawberry, cherry, or even pineapple) if apple weren’t available.

This recipe makes 5 of the disposable aluminum loaf pans.

I think the coffee is the key ingredient here. It really cuts that cloying sweetness and make the cake flavors must darker and more interesting.

I wrap them tightly in waxed paper when they’re cooled; they will keep three weeks if kept well-wrapped.

from Sybil Lovett (Leigh’s maternal grandmother)

as far as the recipe:
* plumping fruits – just soaking in alcohol works fine, of course, especially if you leave the fruits in for a long time. The reason to steam plump ( IF necessary) before the 2-day soak in the hooch is that if the fruit is really wizened alcohol can toughen the skins.

* mold – eek! what a drag. I’ve never had it happen but maybe I’m just lucky. Do see looking back over the recipe I neglected to say linen cloths; it might be something more tightly woven wouldn’t work the same way. How do you pack your cakes for storage now?

I just hope the fruitcakes are all you remember them to be. Also that you can remember how YOU made them; the recipe works with whatever dried fruits, candied fruits and nuts you want, as long as the quantities add up to the same amounts as called for, and my guess is that many bakers have made it their own in various ways.