Recipe: Delicious slow cooker fruit cake uses only three ingredients (2024)

FAQs

What ingredient in fruitcake makes it last so long? ›

Sugar and alcohol create a hostile environment for microorganisms. One ingredient that bolsters fruitcake's longevity is alcohol, says Bryan Quoc Le, a food scientist and faculty research fellow at Pacific Lutheran University.

“Vinegar is a secret ingredient that can make your cakes light and fluffy.” One of the great things about using vinegar in cakes is that it's versatile. You can incorporate it into various cake recipes, from classic chocolate cakes to fruity variations.

Keep the heat low and monitor moisture

If you're hoping to bring back this holiday tradition, or just want a decadent treat for any other time of year, then it's important that you don't overbake your fruitcake. Otherwise, you'll be left with the same worthless clump of fruit that people dread receiving.

Have you ever had fresh or dried fruit sink to the bottom of a cake or loaf? Don't worry, it's a common problem and generally happens when the cake batter isn't heavy or thick enough to hold the weight of the fruit as it bakes.

Other good choices of booze include brandy, rum, or whiskey. Feel free to use one or a mix of these to best complement your fruitcake. Once you've chosen the liquor, bake the cake, poke holes throughout the whole thing, and pour a few tablespoons of the alcohol over it. Or, you can brush the cake with the alcohol.

We recommend wrapping your fruitcake in plastic wrap before placing it in an airtight container. Then, place that container in the fridge. Doing this can ensure your fruitcake stays fresh for up to two months.

This can happen for a variety of reasons ranging from type of flour, not enough eggs/wrong size eggs, not enough liquid or fats and even storage. 'Causes of crumbly fruit cake'.

“Why is my cake raw and doughy inside?” Large fruit cakes or moist carrot cakes can appear cooked on the outside but may still be under-baked in the middle. A recipe should give the correct oven temperature and timings, so follow it closely. Check your cake is cooked on the inside before you take it out of the oven.

The ratio of wet to dry ingredients determines a cake's moisture level. If there's simply too much flour and not enough butter, a cake will taste dry. On the other hand, if there's too much milk and not enough flour, a cake will taste too wet. Finding the right balance between wet and dry ingredients is key.

What typically makes fruitcake last so long is its super dense texture. This texture prevents, let's say, less than appetizing things from setting up camp in the cake's crevices. Additionally, a lot of the ingredients in our fruitcakes are dried or glaceéd, so they don't contain much moisture.

How do you evenly distribute fruit in a cake? ›

Toss the fruit in a little flour before adding it to the batter. Use 2-3 tablespoons to coat the fruit thoroughly, then gently fold it into the cake batter right before you pour it into the pan or patty pans.

In industry all sorts of chemical preservatives are used. For the home baker extending shelf life by a few days can be achieved by adding glycerine or golden syrup to the cake batter.

Keeping them in the chiller would dry the fruit out and that would be unpleasant. So I brushed their surface with piping jelly to keep the fruits moist and shiny. Since the fruits do not come into direct contact with cold air, they don't dry out. So for two days, piping jelly does great!

Alcohol acts as preservative so fruit cakes fed this way and stored properly will last a very long time. Traditionally the top tier of a wedding fruit cake would have been kept for the first child's christening. The sugars in the fruit and alcohol act as preservatives and will prevent moulding.

Fruitcakes are traditionally aged in a cloth wrapping of alcohol for at least five weeks. The alcohol preserves the cakes, fruits, and nuts within, and keeps everything moist.