Recipe: Old-World Fruit Cake [edit]

Step 1

Mix the melted butter, eggs, rum and coffee together. Add brown sugar and mix well. Add rest of dry ingredients and place in a buttered loaf pan.

Step 2

Bake at 300 degrees F. for 2 hours or until done (it will separate from the sides of the pan). Make glaze when almost completely baked: Melt (do not boil) butter. Add rum and sugar. Stir by hand. Remove the cake from the oven and pour half of the glaze over it. Let it cool 25 minutes, then turn it over and pour the remaining glaze on the other side.

Step 3

NOTES:* A traditional European-style fruit cake - Although fruitcakes have a bad reputation, this one is*excellent*. My mother has been making it for years. She originally got the recipe from a friend, but has since adapted it to suit her fans. (She gets requests for it all year long.)

Step 4

* Don't use glass pans. This freezes well, if you make more than you can eat; just be sure to wrap it carefully so it doesn't get freezer burn. Warm frozen cake in the oven, not the microwave.

Step 5

Difficulty: easy to moderate.

Step 6

Time: 15 minutes preparation, 2 hours baking, 30 minutes finishing.

Step 7

Precision: measure the ingredients.

Step 8

Seema Chandnani