The
WU above reminds me of my own wedding with a
Canadian. Not knowing
about the traditions, I allowed my
mom-in-law and
sister-in-law to bake a
'normal' cake.
Some days before my mom changed her mind and
made the well-known (and
generally disliked) fruit cake ('It's tradition, sweety'). My sister-in-law
finished the cake a day later ('Here you go, your whipped cream ice cake with
decorations, sweety').
Dilemma: two cakes? To avoid arguments and fights, I made a
Salomon's decision:
combine the cakes and
tell nobody what was in that big
wedding cake.
My European guests loved it.
Anyways, here's the recipe, in case you want to have a traditional wedding cake.
Fruit cake
Ingredients:
1 lb. butter or margarine
1 lb. brown sugar
12 egg yolks
1 cup molasses
12 egg whites
4 cups
pastry flour
4 tsp allspice
4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp mace
2 lbs seeded raisins, cut in pieces
2 lbs
Sultana raisins, chopped
1 lb currants
1/2 preserved lemon rind (cut small)
1/2 preserved orange rind (cut small)
1 lb. candied cherries (cut small)
1 lb. candied pineapple (cut small)
1 1/2 lb. thinly sliced citron
2 cups preserved strawberries
1 lb. chopped blanched almonds
1 cup fruit juice
1/4 tsp soda dissolved in 1 tbsp. hot water
Instructions:
Cream together butter and brown sugar. Add the beaten egg yolks and molasses.
Beat well. Fold in stiff beaten egg whites. Sift together the floar and spices.
Reserve 1 cup for dredging fruit. Add the remaining flour mix to egg mixture.
Mix the prepared fruit, except for citron and dredge with 1 cup flour. Add
strawberries, almonds and fruit juice to mixture and mix all together well.
Add the dissolved soda.
Have ready 5/6 pans large loaf pans greased. Place a layer of the batter in
each pan, then a layer of the citron and again a layer of the batter up to
3/4 full. Over the top place small pieces of citron.
Bake at 275 degrees F for 3 - 4 hours (large pans), or for 2 hrs at 325 degrees
(small pans). Or cover the pans with wax paper and steam the fruitcakes 2 hrs,
remove wax paper and bake 2 hrs at 275 degrees. (or 1 hr steaming and 1 hr baking
for the smaller fruitcakes).
Source: my mom-in-law and Meals Tested Tasted And Approved.