Fruit Cake

I came to love fruit cake as a child.  It was one of my favorite treats as the holidays approached.  The house would be filled with special aromas on days I came home from school to find mom/Nana baking.
 

Nana’s fruit cake was a treat to receive.  Dark, heavy, and rich it was filled with nuts, dates, and candied fruits.  Sometimes we would go to pecan groves and walnut groves to gather the nuts, take them home, crack them, and extract the nut meat inside.  If Nana’s fruit cake ended up in your Christmas box you were indeed most fortunate.

2 cups chopped pecans

1 lb dates – chopped

½ lb candied cherries, chopped

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup flour

1 cup sugar

4 egg yolks – beat separately

4 egg whites – add cream of tartar and beat

Add the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder to the chopped nuts and fruit

Add the egg yolks to egg whites to fruit and nut mixture and fold in

Put dough in angle food baking pan

Place a pan with water in it on lower rack of oven

Place fruit cake on oven rack above the pan of water

Bake at 325 for 1 ½ hrs