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)
