Individual Christmas Fruitcakes

I am busy baking for the Christmas markets and this week I'm making my Christmas cakes. I am partial to dark fruitcake. These adorable little individual paper bakeware were purchased on sale after Christmas last year. In a couple of weeks these will be decorated  with a marzipan star studded with silver dragees and then wrapped in cellophane. Until then they will be basted occasionally with a brandy spiked simple syrup.

I have a lot of Thompson raisins so used them exclusively. For the mixed spices, I used 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves, 1/4 teaspoon ground anise, 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg and 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice.

My Kitchenaid Steam Assist oven was perfect for this job. There is a steam bake cycle for desserts that bakes at 275F and constantly pumps steam into the oven. After 3 hours I had perfectly steamed fruitcakes.

Rich Dark Fruitcake               Chatelaine Cookbook

1 lb each, candied pineapple, glacé cherries, muscat raisins, seedless blue raisins, cut mixed peel, currants
1/2 lb each, figs, dates, pecans
1 - 10 oz can crushed pineapple, drained
1 1/2 cups butter
2 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup cooking molasses
8 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
4 tsp baking powder
5 cups unsifted pastry flour
1 tbsp mixed spices

Dredge prepared fruit and nuts with 1 cup of the flour. Cream next five ingredients together. Make pineapple juice up to 1 cup with orange juice or brandy. Add to creamed mixture alternately with dry ingredients sifted together. Add fruit mixture. Steam cakes 3 to 4 hours, depending on size; then bake at 300F for 45 minutes, or until top is dry. Makes 12 pounds.