Recipe: Preserving Fruit Cake

After being slowly baked, the finished fruitcakes get their preservative treatment. Cheesecloth is soaked in brandy, bourbon, whiskey, rum or other liquor and then wrapped around the cooled fruitcake. The whole thing is then wrapped in foil to ripen and age.

Fruitcake storage
Fruitcakes soaked in liquor can literally last for years if you periodically add more liquor. Some fruitcake fans won't even touch a fruitcake until it has aged at least three years, although it's generally recommended that soaked fruitcakes be consumed within two years. Fruitcake should be tightly wrapped and stored in the refrigerator. Unwrap every few months and drizzle with liquor. Re-wrap tightly. Interestingly enough, although fruitcake can be frozen, its life is shorter than if refrigerated, only one year.

Fruitcake tips and cooking hints
Line cake pans with greased foil to prevent over-browning, being sure to leave a generous amount of foil overhanging the sides of the pan to act as handles to lift the cake from the pan when it's done.
Fill pans no more than two-thirds full.
Placing pans in a tray half-filled with hot water will also help prevent over-browning during the long, slow cooking period.
Before removing the cake from the pan to cool, let it rest about 10 minutes in the pan.
The standard cake testing method applies to fruitcakes: a wooden skewer inserted in the center should come out clean.
For easy slicing, the cake should be cold. Use a thin knife.
For liquor-soaked cakes, refrigerate at least three weeks before eating to let it ripen.
Substitute plain dried fruit for candied fruit if you wish.
Fruit juice can be substituted for liquor as a soaking liquid. Be sure to refrigerate and consume within two months.