Russian Fruit Cake recipe: Mazurka fruit cake…
That dreaded fruit cake. Made by everyone’s favorite and or not so favorite aunt….I have seen fruit cakes last for twenty years and get passed around as if they are deadly treats and no one wants them and then I have seen people eat fruit cake like it is the cat’s meow…
Regardless of your standing on the subject of fruit cakes. Russians are no different than everyone else and they have the famous Christmas/Holiday/whatever-day Fruit Cake; Called Mazurka fruit cake…
Lets make a fruit cake and give it to someone and or better yet. Just eat the freshly made cake. They really are not bad when you eat them warm especially…. Yummy…
Cream Sherry works great…
Ingredients to set overnight:
1 c raisins, rinsed and chopped
1 c dried apricots, rinsed and chopped
1 c mixed candied fruits, chopped
1 c sherry (Real? or whatever, okay cooking sherry. Not as much fun to sip on…. “Cooking sherry is low-quality sherry with salt added. There is no reason to buy cooking sherry. Just purchase any inexpensive sherry and this will give you better everything, including sips to taste the product for quality control…”)
Ingredients to make cake with:
1 c sugar
1 c brown sugar
1 c butter
2 egg, beaten
1 c sourdough starter
1 c flour
1 ts baking soda
salt (pinch of salt with do you)
cinnamon (Just a pinch as needed. No bigger pinch than that. Yes four/five pinches are okay… )
nutmeg (A pinch at a time. Well actually two, three, okay four pinches will do…)
sliced almonds (1/2 cup)
diced walnuts (1/4 cup)** 6 tbs sherry for later… (Set it aside now, for in case you sip that sherry to much! 😉 )
Lets make day one:
Combine all fruits with real sherry and let stand overnight in a covered bowl… (No, do not pour over ice cream or any other dessert. Let the stuff sit for one day! Also leave the “set aside 6 tbs sherry for later”, there is enough real sherry to sip on in the bottle that you bought…)
Lets make day two:
1. Hand whip sugars, butter and spices together until fluffy… (Okay use your blender!)
2. Beat in two eggs and then stir/blend in sourdough starter….
3. Blend in fruit mixture (that sat overnight) and almonds and walnuts…
4. Sift the flour, add baking soda and a pinch of salt into the batter and mix thoroughly, but do not whip it hard. Just blend it thoroughly…
5. Split batter in half and put into two prepared loaf pans (cut baking paper for loaf pan and grease it with oil).
6. Bake in a preheated oven center (about 275 degree F) until done. Check with toothpick inserted and comes out clean, technique…
7. Remove from a pan and cool well before removing baking paper…
Then:
Sprinkle 3 tablespoons of real sherry over a cooled loaf before serving… (I prefer to use an extra touch added to the end, powdered sugar after the sherry is sprinkled on. That makes the sugar stay put…) Plus use rum in place of sherry and it makes a fine rum cake…
Enjoy…
WtR