BACK-IN-THE-DAY BAKING ITEMS — Grandma Anna Kollar’s mixing bowl and mixing spoon are in my possession and in the picture. The sifter is mine but seldom used. These would be some of the utensils used back in the 1940s to make a fruit cake. There are many recipes for the dried fruit-filled, spicy cake. Three are listed here, along with one for figgy pudding, an English treat for Christmas. -- Esther McCoy

BACK-IN-THE-DAY BAKING ITEMS — Grandma Anna Kollar’s mixing bowl and mixing spoon are in my possession and in the picture. The sifter is mine but seldom used. These would be some of the utensils used back in the 1940s to make a fruit cake. There are many recipes for the dried fruit-filled, spicy cake. Three are listed here, along with one for figgy pudding, an English treat for Christmas. — Esther McCoy

Believe it or not, some folks like — or relish — fruit cake. The aged, spiced cake that is loaded with all types of fruits and pecans is a delicacy to them.

There are others, however, who believe the alcoholic and dried fruit-sodden cake is reminiscent to a door stop. If given to one as a gift, they pass it from family member to family member, as no one has the nerve to say “thank you, but no thank you.” So somewhere down the line, fruit cake must be eaten somewhere in this great land.

Back in my Grandmother Kollar’s day, she made her own fruit cake with every kind of dried fruit she could find on the pantry shelves and would throw in many varieties of nuts gathered from the trees on the farm. Occasionally, we were drafted to do the cracking of the shells and pick out what she called nutmeats.

We were known to say, “This sure doesn’t look like meat.” Then came any fermented fruit juice to add to the batter. I even saw her use homemade beer several times and wanted to lick the big wooden spoon that stirred the heavy batter. Yummy! No one even thought that it was unhealthy to eat batter that contained raw eggs then.

Another thing that bakers of older times did was consign the weekend after Thanksgiving to making the fruit-laden cakes, wrapping them in cheesecloth when cool and dousing them with “spirits.” Then it was tucked away in a cool place but pulled out at least once a week to resoak the fruit cake with alcohol. There were tee-totalers who would use orange or apple juice instead — any kind of juice to keep the cake moist and flavorful. After Christmas dinner, it was brought out and cut with a sharp knife into thin slices and served with a lemon sauce or something called a hard sauce.

I would make a fruit cake for my dad each year, trying to use what remained in my mind of grandma’s do-it-without-a-recipe method.

I think my dad and I were the only two in the family who really liked fruit cake. Others would try it to be considerate and drop a few pieces on the floor to one of our Collie dogs and wonder why they got sick. When he died, I would send a fruit cake to Florence Turnbull in Florida because her husband, Bruce, loved them so.

This is why fruitcake brings back so many memories to me — picking the nuts, coating the dried fruit with a bit of flour so they did not sink to the bottom of the cake, breaking the eggs into a bowl and making sure they had no egg shell bits included and then adding them to the dry ingredients. But my two biggest thrills were seeing the cake come from the wooden stove oven and when it cooled a bit, turning it out on a plate. The other delight was getting to clean off the spoon, where a bit of batter was left just for me. Special memories! What would life be without them?

Like my grandmother, I never wrote down how I made my fruit cakes and would not even dare to tell you the ingredients or quantities. Fruit cakes are too expensive to mess one up.

I looked through some recipe books and have come up with some recipes from seasoned cooks, including the “80 Years of Good Cooking Around West Virginia” recipe book. One fruit cake is filled with fruits and nuts and rum extract and the other has a lemon flavor and the nip of brandy, candied red cherries, candied pineapple and lots of pecan pieces. It is from Ruby Dunlap of Kanawha County.

Yummy Fruitcake

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 pound candied red cherries, chopped

1 pound candied pineapple, chopped

1 1/4 pounds pitted dates, chopped

4 eggs

1 ounce rum extract

1 cup sugar

2 pounds pecan pieces

Sift salt and baking powder into a large bowl. Add cherries, pineapple and dates, tossing to coat. Beat eggs until foamy. Add rum extract and sugar, beating well. Stir into fruit mixture. Fold in pecans. Grease 10-inch tube pan. Line with wax paper and grease with shortening. Spoon batter in prepared pan, pressing down firmly. Bake at 275 degrees for 1 1/2 hours. Cool in pan for 5 minutes. Invert onto a cake plate and cool completely. You may baste the cake with orange juice or an alcoholic beverage to moisten. Yields 16 servings.

≤≤≤≤≤

The other fruit cake is one using lemon extract, and the recipe notes that butter is absolutely needed — don’t use margarine. This recipe is from Etta L. Carnes, Harrison County in West Virginia.

White Fruit Cake

2 cups butter, softened

2 cups sugar

8 eggs

4 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 ounces lemon extract

1 pound each of candied cherries and candied pineapple, chopped

1 pound pecan halves

1/2 cup brandy

Extra whole cherries, candied pineapple and pecans

Cream butter and sugar in mixer bowl until smooth. Add eggs, two at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift flour salt and baking powder together. Add to creamed mixture, mixing well. Stir in lemon extract. Fold in cherries, pineapple and pecan halves. Pour into greased 10-inch tube pan. Bake at 275 degrees for 1 1/2 hours. Cool in pan for 10 to 15 minutes. Invert onto a wire rack. Pour brandy slowly over cake. Garnish with pecan halves, whole cherries and pineapple pieces dipped in honey before placing them on the top of the cake.

≤≤≤≤≤

I have never heard of this kind of spiced fruit cake before. And did you know that the seasonal cake can be spelled either fruit cake or fruitcake? This is according to Google.

It calls for unsweetened apple sauce and small gum drops or bigger ones chopped up. It is from a recipe book given to me by a good friend, Dolores Dooley, and called “Stories and Recipes from the Great Depression of the 1930s.” They knew how to make the food budget stretch (if there was a food budget.) Many lived off the land with cows, chickens and a vegetable garden. This was a very good old recipe that always was used at Christmas time, it was noted.

Gum Drop Fruit Cake

2 cups lard, melted (This is not used anymore. I’m sure it could be replaced by shortening.)

1 cup each granulated and brown sugar

4 eggs beaten

2 cups unsweetened applesauce

4 1/2 to 5 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup dates, cut into pieces

1 cup Brazil nuts, cut in half

1 cup small gum drops (no black or spiced gum drops)

1 cup raisins, soaked in hot water for half an hour and drained

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons nutmeg

2 teaspoons allspice

Cream shortening and sugars. Add eggs, one at a time. Pour in the apple sauce and mix well. Combine flour with baking soda and salt. Put about 1/2 cup flour in a bowl and add dates, nuts, gum drops and raisins. Using your hands, cover the fruit with the flour. Add the spices and fruit to the batter, along with the flour and mix well. Bake in three bread tins at 350 degrees for 45 minutes each.

≤≤≤≤≤

This is not a fruit cake, but my dad, with Irish and English heritage, always wanted my mother to make this steamed fig pudding for Christmas. The name always reminded me of the Scrooge “A Christmas Carol” done in cartoon form. The Cratchett family sang “O Give Me Some Figgy Pudding.”

This recipe is from a book of cut-out recipes that Julie Kertoy put together. It went to Mary Kertoy who thought I would have better use of it in my food column. You can still buy suet at the meat department. It isn’t an asked-for commodity, so you might have to ask for it a week before making the pudding so they can get it in. And honestly, you can’t taste it in the dessert when it is completed. I was told long ago that the suet replaces a fat in the recipe, such as butter or shortening. I have no idea, though, how you would substitute it.

Steamed Fig Pudding

1 pound dried figs

1 3/4 cups milk

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon salt

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups ground suet

1 1/2 cups fresh bread crumbs

3 tablespoons grated orange rind

With scissors, snip stems from figs. Into a double boiler, cut figs into small pieces; add milk and cook, covered 20 minutes. Sift flour with baking powder, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt.

In bowl, beat eggs; add suet, bread crumbs, orange rind, (now called zest), fig mixture and flour mixture. Mix well. Turn into a well-greased 2-quart mold. Cover tightly. First put layer of cheesecloth over the mold with the batter, then put three or four layers of wax paper, now aluminum foil or plastic wrap would likely do.

Place the mold on a trivet in a deep kettle. Add enough boiling water to come halfway up the sides of the mold. Steam covered, for 2 hours or until done. Let stand 2 minutes before removing from mold. Serve with ice cream sauce or lemon sauce, using a box of lemon pudding and adding 3/4 cup more water than required.

To do ahead, make the figgy pudding and remove from the mold. Cool, wrap in waxed paper and refrigerate. To serve, wrap in foil and bake at 325 degrees for up to 1 hour.

Ice Cream Sauce

1 egg

1/4 cup sugar

Pinch salt

1/3 cup melted butter or margarine

1 teaspoon vanilla or brandy extract

1 cup heavy cream, whipped

Beat egg until thick and light; beat in sugar and salt. Gradually beat in butter and extract. Fold in whipped cream. Serve on steamed pudding. Makes 12 servings and fig pudding and sauce.

Note: Again, this is the older way where there was no fear of eating raw eggs. You can heat the beaten egg, sugar, salt and butter until it barely bubbles. Let cool completely. Add brandy extract and fold in the whipped cream.

(McCoy can be contacted at emccoy@heraldstaroline.com.)