Recipe: Buttermilk Pecan Fruitcake (using dried pears)

BUTTERMILK PECAN FRUITCAKE

4 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups dried pears, chopped
2 cups pecans, chopped
1 cup butter, softened
3 cups sugar
4 eggs, separated
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups buttermilk
GARNISHES:
whole shelled nuts and mixed candied fruit peel

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease and flour 4 loaf pans.

Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add pears and pecans; stir again. Set aside.

In large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and beat again. Alternately add dry ingredients and buttermilk, blending well after each addition.

With clean dry beaters, beat egg whites until they stand in firm, glossy, moist peaks. Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into batter to lighten it, then fold in remaining whites. Fill each prepared loaf pan 2/3 of batter.

Reduce oven heat to 350 degrees F. Place loaves in oven and bake 65 minutes, until tester inserted in center of each cake comes out clean. Ten minutes before cakes are done, rotate pans back to front to cakes on each rack brown evenly. Let cakes cool five minutes on wire racks, then turn out and finish cooling right side up on wire racks.

Before serving, decorate top of fruitcakes with whole nuts and mixed candied fruit peel.

Makes 4 loaves
Source: The Christmas Kitchen by Lorraine Bodger