Gramma Boekman and Aunt Meal used to make these fruitcakes every Christmas to sell for a little extra spending money. Aunt Meal is remembered most for her occasional occupation as a “high-class call girl.” However, Gramma also says that she was very resourceful, and although she pilfered from the department store where she worked, “she made a lot of money in the stock market.”
Bob continues the Caldwell Fruitcake Tradition, to the delight of some and the dismay of others.
Aunt Meal’s Famous Fruitcake
- 1 pound granulated sugar
- 1 pound flour
- 10 medium (or 9 large or extra large eggs)
- 1 pound butter
- 2 1/2 pounds dark raisins
- 1 1/2 pounds golden raisins
- 1/2 pound pecans (chopped coarsely)
- 1/2 pound candied cherries
- 1/2 pound candied pineapple
- 1/2 pound citron ((ask Bob))
- 1/2 pound orange peel
- 1/2 pound lemon peel
- 2 nutmegs (grated)
- 2 tbsp Rum Extract
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
Fruit Cake Glaze (optional):
- 1/4 cup light corn syrup
- 2 tablespoons water
- Mix all fruit, nuts and butter together.
- Let stand overnight.
- Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
- Mix sugar, flour, eggs, baking powder, rum extract, salt, and nutmeg.
- Stir into fruit.
- Pour into lined pans and bake for about four hours.
- Cover with Glaze. (optional, but recommended…)
- Tightly wrap when cooled.
- Keeps forever (literally :> )
For the glaze
- Bring ingredients to a rolling boil.
- Cool.
- Pour over cold cake before or after storing.
Pour a shot of rum or brandy over each fruit cake once a year or so, it keeps the texture and flavor at peak!
<<corrected>>
Somehow, this got mis-attributed to Aunt Meal (Amelia Dreschler Furman) rather than Aunt Pearl (Pearl Dreschler Beck). Aunt Pearl was a sweet old lady who baked her way through the Great Depression. I remember Aunt Meal as a dried up old prune, though she might have had some redeeming features. I do know that at one point, she refused to lend Gus (Grandpa August Carl Boekman) about $100 to fix the furnace on a big old barn of a house which was reportedly the reason that they lost the house. I have never tried the glaze, but I do know that if you pour a shot of rum or brandy over each fruit cake once a year or so, it keeps the texture and flavor at peak!
Some additions to the recipe – – maybe we should rewrite it. 10 medium, 9 large or extra large eggs; 2-1/2 lbs dark raisins, 1-1/2 lbs. golden raisins; pecans should be chopped coarsely; 2 T. rum extract; 2 tsp. baking powder. In the directions, add “Mix all fruit, nuts and butter together”; “Mix sugar, flour, eggs, baking powder, rum extract, salt, and nutmeg.”