Faithful commenter ‘suek’ has shared her mom’s fruitcake recipe.  

From the comment thread, we also learn that Sue’s Ma always said, ” ‘No pineapple!’ … because the pineapple (and the immediate surrounding cake) would mold, even if faithfully “watered” with Bourbon. ” But JudyDee’s is fine!

Sue’s Ma’s Fruitcake

1# butter
1# sugar
1 dozen eggs
4 oz liquor

1# flour (3 1/5 cups)
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp cinnamon

2# raisins
1# currants
1# dates 
1# figs 
1# pitted dates
¼ # English walnuts
¼ # Black walnuts
¼ # each: citron, candied orange peel, candied lemon peel, candied maraschino cherries

(Total of 6 ½ lbs of dried fruit and nuts – even if you change the various fruits.)


Mix dry ingredients, and add fruit and nuts. Turn the fruit into the dry ingredients until they’re well coated with the flour mix.

In a separate bowl, cream butter with sugar and add eggs, one at a time . (My Mom’s recipe called for each egg to be broken into a separate cup and then added to the creamed mix. I decided that this was probably a hangover from the days of home supplied eggs, with the subsequent risk that one of the eggs might be rotten – ruining all of the mix. It’s probably not necessary today). Add the liquor last.

Fold the floured fruit into the creamed butter mix – or add the creamed mix into the floured fruit…depending on the size of your bowls. 

Loaf pans should be 3” x 5”, and lined with oiled/buttered brown paper. Fill the pans about 2/3 full, and bake at least 1 hour at 275* degrees.