Old Fashioned Fruit Cake #4

This is a Southern-style fruit cake that goes all in on preserves. Blackberry jam, fig preserves, and watermelon rind preserves all go into the batter alongside candied cherries, candied pineapple, raisins, and chopped raw apples. It’s the kind of recipe that comes from a grandmother’s handwritten card, the sort you only find in the Deep South.

Molasses, grape juice, sour milk, and cocoa powder darken the batter and add a complex, bittersweet backbone that keeps all that fruit sweetness in check. Eight eggs hold everything together in what’s essentially more fruit and nuts than cake.

Four cups of chopped pecans make this as much a nut cake as a fruit cake. Every slice is dense, sticky, and packed with bits of candied fruit and crunchy nuts.

Baking in a wax paper-lined cast iron skillet is old-school for a reason. The heavy iron distributes heat evenly at a low temperature, and that slow bake gives the batter time to set around all those heavy mix-ins without burning the edges.

Chef Tips

• Line the skillet carefully with wax paper and grease it well. This cake is sticky and will cling to bare iron.
• Bake low and slow. The preserves and molasses burn easily at high temperatures.
• Toss the chopped fruit and nuts with a few tablespoons of flour before mixing into the batter. This keeps them from sinking to the bottom.
• This cake freezes beautifully. Wrap tightly in plastic, then foil, and it keeps for months.

Variations

• Soak the finished cake in bourbon or rum for a boozy holiday version. Brush it on weekly in the weeks before Christmas.
• Swap grape juice for apple cider for a slightly different fruit note.
• Use walnuts instead of pecans if that’s what you have on hand.