Loaded Holiday Fruit Cake

We have lots of food traditions around the holidays - and fruitcake is a big one! Love it or hate it fruitcake is here to stay. It's surprisingly simple to make and it turns out that it's a great gift for any fruitcake lovers in your life. Check out the recipe below:

HOLIDAY FRUIT CAKE

Ingredients:

• 1cup melted butter

• 5 eggs

• 1tsp vanilla

• 1 cup sugar

• 2 cups AP flour

• 2 tsp baking powder

• 2 oz brandy (optional)

• 1 cup pitted prunes; chopped

• 1 cup dates; chopped

• 1cup apricots; chopped

• 1 cup pecans; broken up

• 1 cup candied peel

• 1/2 cup candied ginger; chopped

Directions:

Beat eggs, combine with melted butter and vanilla. In a separate bowl add dry ingredients - flour, sugar, baking powder. Mix in wet ingredients and add brandy. Mix the fruit into the batter and pour into a greased 10" cake pan. Bake at 325F (168C) for 1 1/2 hours. Once baked, let cool on a wire rack and poke holes in it with a skewer, and douse liberally with the liquor of choice (rum, brandy, etc). Wrap in tin foil and place in airtight container. Add liquor every week and age for 1 month. The cake can be eaten right away, but we think that it gets better with age.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!