CHUsday and Christmas Fruit Cake

So how do you feel about fruit cake?  I see a collective screwing of faces out there.  But honestly this fruitcake, packed with chocolate chips, cherries, dates and walnuts  is hard to beat.  Did you get that?  CHOCOLATE chips in fruitcake?  Yum!

I learned to make this recipe in the 1970s, and I’ve made it every Christmas since.  The friend who gave me the recipe called it Bishop’s Cake, and why would I argue?  I’ve seen it called other names since then, but this one stuck for me.  It lasts a long time when refrigerated and it’s rich.  One small slice is plenty. (Don’t take the photo too seriously.  Bishop’s Cake is mostly nuts and fruits with much less batter than my illustration.)

So here’s a Christmas gift for you, an easy one to make once the ingredients have been assembled.  I guarantee you’ll be pleased.

Bishop’s Cake

In a medium size bowl combine:

  • 3 eggs, well beaten
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 ½ cups cake or all-purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon salt

Mix the batter by hand.  Then add:

  • 1 cup candied cherries–chopped (not maraschino, but the fruitcake kind that come in plastic containers.
  • 1 cup chopped dates
  • 1 cup chocolate chips
  • 2 cups chopped walnuts

Grease loaf/bread pan and put wax or parchment paper in bottom (or just grease really well).

Bake at 250-300 degrees for 1 ½ hours.  Let cool completely.  Slice and enjoy.

As for CHU?  Don’t forget, to end with a bang this month, I’m giving away a $50 gift certificate to Barnes and Noble bookstores instead of a silly kitchen gadget.  That way you can indulge your cookbook fantasies or take the CHU pledge and use the ones you have and buy something yummy to read instead.  However you plan to use it if  you win, you’ll find the rules in last week’s CHU blog. 

Remember, we’re not asking for original recipes, just something new to YOU that you haven’t made before.  Start your ovens and enjoy.

5 Comments

  1. Diane Sallans on December 16, 2011 at 3:35 pm

    I actuslly love a nice dense fruitcake, so I never really went with the jokes about passing the same one around year after year. So tasty in the cold winter with a nice hot cup of tea.

    As for the Chu rules, does it count that I am planning on making a new recipe for Christmas Eve? I’m on the search for a Past Bolognese recipe (but using ground turkey &/or pork sausage, rahter than beef, and without cream due to family member allergies). I’ve printed two so far off Cooks.Com, but I’ll continue to search over the weekend, and may end up combining a couple.

    I’d love to subcribe to this blog by email, but can’t figure out how – when I use the Subscribe button I get a bunch of code.

    • Emilie Richards on January 2, 2012 at 3:16 pm

      Diane, I entered you since you were clearly looking for that new recipe and I’m sure you made it. Unfortunately as I was making sure I had everyone to do the drawing, I found this. There was a brief period when WordPress wasn’t sending me comments. But you’re entered and we’ll see in a few mintues who wins. Meantime, if you email me with what you’re getting when you try to subscribe to the blog, maybe my webmaster can help. I was able to get it myself, so this may be a system incompatibility. You can email at emilie at (use the symbol) emilierichards.com. (Writing it this way here keeps the spambots from attacking. Or helps.)

  2. Karen Pollard on December 24, 2011 at 2:35 am

    I am not a fan of fruitcake, but this recipe might actually taste better than the ones I’ve tasted before.
    My favorite cake to make for Christmas is Hummingbird Cake. It’s just delicious but awfully rich after a full Christmas dinner.
    This year, I am probably going to make Apricot Nectar cake, which is a much lighter version.
    I’ll also be making orange date nut and poppyseed bread for breakfasts for the two mornings.

  3. Karen Pollard on December 24, 2011 at 2:36 am

    I have no made the Poppyseed bread I am making tomorrow morning, but I have tasted it and loved it; especially with a double batch of the glaze that goes on top!!!

    • Emilie Richards on December 26, 2011 at 4:34 pm

      I hope it was wonderful, Karen. It sounds like it.

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