Radical as it may seem and be, ACR's publisher loves good fruitcake and Literary Editor/Board Member Caroline Ross was able to oblige with another outstanding recipe from her grandma's cookbook....
(Click graphic below for Adobe format page view of Grandma's cookbook) "My grandma’s cookbook is my one real treasure. Published in the 1800s, the book is so old it cannot be rebound, so it is kept in an acid-free box, away from the elements. Lillie Irma May Smith Cooper (Miss Lillie) was born May 13, 1895. The cookbook was her Mammy’s (my great grandmother), who got the book when she purchased her stove from the Wrought Iron Range Co., St. Louis, MO.
I associate the book with my grandma’s hands. Gnarled, liver spotted and strong, I watched those hands aptly wring the neck of a chicken, and then she spent hours at the sink plucking the feathers, all the while carrying on a conversation without break. Her kitchen walls were lined with shelves, each shelf stocked with summer-canned vegetables from her garden. She could always put together a great meal when we showed up on her doorstep.
From her cookbook, then, are the recipes that fed my childhood. May they feed you too." -- cfr
2 c light brown sugar
1 c molasses
1 c butter
1 c strong coffee
1 c seedless raisins
½ c currants
1 c chopped dates
1 c chopped figs
½ c chopped citron
1 c chopped nuts
3 eggs
1 tsp mixed spices
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp grated nutmeg
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp soda
½ tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
Cream the butter and gradually cream in the sugar; add the well-beaten egg yolks and molasses, thoroughly mixing. Sift and measure 3 cups of the flour, add spices, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, soda and salt to flour and resift twice. Into the first mixture, stir in portions of the flour and liquid coffee alternately until all are well mixed; add vanilla, and fold in the well-beaten egg whites. Sift and measure the remaining 2 cups flour and thoroughly mix it with the well-chopped fruits and nut meats; add these to the cake mixture the last thing before pouring into the pans. Bake in three equal layers; line pans with three or four thicknesses of brown paper with well buttered surface; place in a moderate oven for about one hour, then cover the pans with a double thickness of the brown paper, reduce the oven heat slightly and allow to bake for two or three hours longer, or until done.
When cooled, put cake together with the following special filling: Double the recipe for caramel icing and add one cup of finely chopped nut meats. Cover and decorate with white ornamental icing, walnut or pecan halves and small candies may also be used with pleasing effect; small natural holly sprigs with candy hot drops for holly berries, a candy or even a paper Santa Claus may be used with effect, and many other decorations will suggest themselves.
If desired, this cake may readily be baked in a single loaf, in which case, a large center tube baking pan should be used. Half the given quantities may be used for a smaller cake.
Caramel Icing
2 c light brown sugar
1 c cream
1 Tbl butter
1 tsp vanilla
Cook the sugar and cream in a saucepan until it forms a soft ball when dropped in cold water; add butter and flavoring; remove from the fire and beat until it is grainy and of right consistency to spread.
Video above: popular professional author, sports writer, musician/songwriter Alan Ross's song for the author, his wife. (Check ACR's Key Search for more articles by Caroline Ross, and under her penname karol cooper, and by and about Alan.) Caroline is ACR's Contributing Literary Editor, a member of its Board of Directors, and a personal friend of the publisher's.
from Nashville's Frist Center Tracey Snelling exhibit 9/9/2011-2/5/2012
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