Mom Haut's Christmas Cake

The Sister (whom I love to antagonize) hunted down this recipe for me. Lots of memories came flooding back making these. Now, realize that Mom Haut was a baker, a real baker having grown up over the bakery that her dad had. So, this makes a lot.

Here's the original recipe. I have listed out what I did at the end of this post.

Here's what the final product looks like.

Here's the amount of fruit that is used. Soaking in 1 pint of rum! I actually transferred this to a marinating container so that all the fruit was in contact with rum all the time it sat overnight.

Here's the eggs, sugar, shortening and baking soda after mixing.

Here's the mixture after adding to flour and spices.

Here's the completed mixture.

Following are several pictures of various size tins ready for the oven as well as the product cooling.

So, here is what I did!

Mix in order given

1/2 lb. pitted dates

1 small bottle cherries, drained

1/2 lb. candied fruit

1/4 lb. nuts

1 piece citron (I used 1 tsp dried orange peel)

1/2 lb. light raisins

1 lb. dark raisins

Mix all together and add 1 pint rum. Let stand overnight.

Mix

4 eggs, well beaten

1/2 lb. shortening

2 cups sugar

2 tsp. baking soda

Measure out

4 cups flour

1/2 tsp. ginger, ground

1/2 tsp. cloves, ground

1 tsp. mace, ground

2 tsp. cinnamon, ground

Add spices to flour and sift.

Add to mixture. Stir well.

Add mixed fruits/rum to mixture. Stir well.

Pour into greased/floured tins and bake in moderate (325) oven for 1 – 1-1/2 hours.

I found that at 325, muffins took about 20 minutes, the 4 x 4 loaf pan took 75 minutes (had to cover with aluminum foil after 40 minutes), the large loaf pan took the full 90 minutes (covered with aluminum foil after 50 minutes)