This Christmas Fruitcake is very easy to make. The marzipan and orange peel glaze dresses up this traditional favorite. Fruitcake is a very dense food; a little goes a long way. If you cut this piece in half you would have a traditional serving size for fruitcake.

Christmas Fruitcake is easy to make and is safe for someone on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. The fruitcake can be eaten right away or can be bathed in pear brandy for weeks or even months before consuming. Fruitcake is an excellent emergency or travel food. It can take the place of granola bars and is a good food for high energy activities during the cold winter months. A little goes a long way. Fruitcake can be stored for months in a cool, dry place. If you use pear brandy be very careful to find a producer that uses only fruit and does not add any sugar.

At this time of year, I would highly recommend the frugal householder to save all the peels from organic Mandarin oranges. This “waste product” can be transformed into a delicious addition to your baking that can be used for the rest of the year. The peels have a delicate, bitter flavor. Dry the peels with a dehydrator or use the peels fresh in baking. Also, try drying the waste peels from organic lemons and limes. If the peel is very thick try using a fine grater to get the outer portion of the lemon or lime.

Fruit Cake
1, 1/2c organic prunes, chopped
1, 1/2c organic raisins
2-4T quality pear brandy or 2tsp organic vanilla extract (optional)
1T organic butter, for greasing bread loaf pan
1c organic pecans, chopped
1c organic walnuts, chopped
1c organic almonds, chopped
1/2c local raw honey
3 pastured eggs
1c organic almonds, finely ground
1/2tsp sea salt, finely ground
1/2tsp organic whole allspice, finely ground
1/2tsp organic nutmeg, finely ground
1/2tsp organic cinnamon, finely ground
1 fresh organic Mandarin orange peel, finely minced (optional)

Chop up the prunes into small pieces. Put all the dried fruit and orange peels into a bowl and add the pear brandy or vanilla extract. If you have time, let the alcohol soak into the dried fruit overnight. Preheat the oven to 275F and heavily butter a glass bread loaf pan. Chop up the pecans, walnuts and almonds and add the nuts to the dried fruit. Mix the honey and eggs into the dried fruit and nuts. In a food processor, grind the almonds into a fine flour. Don’t grind too much or the almonds will become butter. Add the sea salt, allspice, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Add the almond mixture to the wet ingredients and mix very well. The batter will be very thick and it might be easier to use your hands for mixing. Work the batter into the bread loaf pan. With your hands, press firmly down on the batter until the cake is a flat brick without air pockets. Cook for 60-70 minutes. Let the cake cool completely before adding another 2T pear brandy on top of the fruitcake.

If you have the time, soak the dried fruit and fresh orange peels in the pear brandy overnight.

After mixing the nuts in with the dried fruit, add the honey and eggs. Mix very well. When you add the ground almonds use your hands for easier mixing.

This is how ground you want the almonds before adding the spices. Don’t grind too much or you will have nut butter.

Make sure your bread loaf pan is very well buttered. The trick to a fruitcake that stays together is to press firmly down on the batter to remove any air spaces before cooking.

Raw Cashew Marzipan
1c organic cashews, ground into butter
1/4c organic macadamia nuts, ground into butter (optional)
1/4c local raw honey
1tsp organic vanilla extract or almond extract

With a food processor grind the nuts into butter. When the nuts start to form into a ball, add the honey and vanilla extract and mix well. Continue to mix and scape the sides of the food processor until all the ingredients form into a ball. The ball will be oily and can be put into the fridge until you are ready to roll out the marzipan and place it on top of the fruitcake. The marzipan should seal the fruitcake from the air.

Grind the cashews and macadamia nuts until they are processed into butter. It will form a ball in the food processor. Add the honey and extract. Mix well until you have a smooth, silky paste.

The marzipan will easily form a soft ball. Refrigerate before rolling out the marzipan.

Orange Peel Glaze
1 organic Mandarin orange, squeezed for juice (optional)
1 fresh organic Mandarin orange peel, very finely sliced
1/4c local raw honey
1T pear brandy (optional)

Take an organic?Mandarin orange and squeeze out the juice. Save the peel. Please be sure to use an organic orange to avoid toxic chemicals. Cut the peel into long, very thin slices. Put the orange juice, sliced orange peels, pear brandy and honey in a 1c glass Pyrex cup. Bring some water to boil in a pan and gently heat the glaze in the Pyrex cup for about 10 minutes. When ready, the glaze will have a pleasant orange flavor. When the glaze is mostly cooled pour on the top of the marzipan and return the fruitcake to the fridge to cool. The fruitcake will keep for weeks in the fridge or can be eaten right away.

Simmer the honey, brandy, orange juice, and orange peels until the glaze picks up the delicate, bitter flavor of the peel.

When the fruitcake has completely cooled pour the brandy on the top. Roll out the marzipan and completely cover the top of the fruitcake. Pour the glaze on top of the marzipan and arrange the orange peels. Store in a cool place.

Updated January 5, 2013: I have been having a discussion with friends about traditional portion sizes for sweets. In our modern times of super-sized everything, it is hard to know what would be a traditional serving size for sweets. When I was a child, wedding fruitcake was cut into very small pieces, about an inch by an inch. If you cut the piece of fruitcake in the first photo in half you would have a traditional serving size. This means a bread loaf pan would give you 32 serves. Maybe if we go back to traditional portion sizes for sweets we can stop the emerging epidemic of diabetes.