Home › Christmas Dinners › Light Fruit Cake
Light Fruit Cake
2/3 cup shortening 2 cups flour, sifted 1/3 teaspoon soda 1/2 cup candied orange peel, chopped 2/3 cup Sultana raisins 1/3 cup walnut meats, chopped 7 egg whites, beaten stiff 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar, sifted 1 teaspoon vanilla Cream shortening very carefully, and add flour and soda sifted together, also fruits and nut meats. Beat egg whites very stiff and gradually add sugar. Combine the two mixtures, add vanilla and pour into a well greased and floured loaf cake pan. Bake in a moderate oven (350 degrees F.) for 1 hour.
A white fruit cake built like an angel-food batter: all the sugar goes into the egg whites, and the stiff meringue is the only liquid in the recipe. Handle it as a foam cake, not a creamed butter cake.
- The hinge: fold, don't beatThe shortening-flour-fruit mixture is stiff and crumbly, close to a streusel. Add it to the meringue in three or four additions, folding with a spatula until just combined; if you stir or beat, the whites collapse and there is nothing left to lift the cake.
- Shortening means hydrogenated vegetable shorteningShortening here most likely means hydrogenated vegetable shortening, such as Crisco or a store brand, which helps keep the crumb pale; in older usage the word could also cover butter or lard. Butter works and tastes better, but it will tint the cake and needs to be soft, not melted.
- Egg whitesSeven large whites is about 1 cup, or 210-230 g. Beat to firm, glossy peaks, then add the powdered sugar a few spoonfuls at a time so the meringue stays smooth.
- Powdered sugarSifted confectioners' sugar, cornstarch and all. It dissolves into the whites more readily than granulated, without the graininess.
- The sodaA third of a teaspoon with no acid ingredient does almost nothing chemically; the lift here is mechanical, from the whites. Sift it with the flour as directed and do not increase it, or the cake will taste soapy.
- Sultanas and candied peelSultanas are golden seedless raisins. Toss the fruit and nuts with a spoonful of the measured flour so they stay suspended rather than sinking to the bottom.
- Oven and pan350F is correct as printed. Use a 9x5-inch loaf pan, greased and floured, and line the bottom with parchment for an easier release. An hour is a fair estimate; test at 50 minutes with a skewer in the center.
- Yield and keepingOne loaf, roughly 12 to 16 thin slices. Unlike a dark fruit cake soaked in spirits, this one has no alcohol to preserve it -- eat it within three or four days, or wrap and freeze.