Dear Eric: I’m using Victoria more these days as a source for food items I can’t find in Port Alberni. I enjoy your articles and I wondered if you might have a recommendation for a Victoria source for good Christmas cake fruit (citron, candied cherries, fruitcake mix, etc).
Jean McIntosh, Port Alberni
Dear Jean: Most supermarkets sell the dried fruit items you are looking for in small tubs in the baking supply aisle. But in further communications with you I learned you were making a number of fruitcakes and buying the fruit in bulk would work best.
In Victoria, Bulk Barn (bulkbarn.ca), which has two locations, 706 Yates St., and 800 Kelly Rd., note on their website that they sell the cherries and fruitcake mix you’re looking for.
Creating Occasions (creatingoccasions.com), a specialty baking and chocolate supply store and cooking school located at 776 Spruce Ave., stocks containers of candied citrus peel and glace pineapple. However, they said they would be happy to bulk order any fruitcake items you would like. They’ve also got you covered for any special baking equipment you might need.
The store that had all items you wanted and more was the small but well-stocked bulk-food store For Good Measure, 3831 Cadboro Bay Rd. Some of the items they had included deluxe glacé mix, glacé mixed citrus peel, glacé pineapple and red and green glacé cherries. They also have vegetarian mincemeat for those wanting to make tarts.
For Good Measure also allows you to shop online. For more information, go to their website, forgoodmeasure.ca.
Just so you know, candied citrus peel, or citron, is citrus rind boiled in sugar syrup until coated and preserved in sugar crystals. Candied or glace cherries are kind of like maraschino cherries, but are further processed and preserved in thick syrup. Fruitcake mix is a blend of candied citrus peel and glace cherries and also sometimes a filler ingredient, such as rutabaga.
Because these items are preserved in that syrup and dried, most sources say you can store them for many months in a cool, dry place, no refrigeration required.
People either seem to love fruitcake or hate it. In Evelyn Raab’s revised and updated book The Clueless Baker: Learning to Bake from Scratch (Firefly Books, $16.95), she had fun with that notion and called her recipe for it “horrible holiday fruitcake.”
Read the introduction to her recipe below to learn why she did. Consider giving this book to someone learning to bake or wanting to improve his or her skills.
Horrible Holiday Fruitcake
This recipe is from The Clueless Baker: Learning to Bake from Scratch (Firefly Books, $16.95). Author Evelyn Raab says this is a fruitcake for people who don’t care for fruitcake — Light and fruity, not dark and heavy, with a buttery pound-cake base. Not at all horrible!
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 cups coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup candied pineapple, chopped
1/4 cup red candied cherries, halved
1/4 cup green candied cherries, halved
1 cup butter
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 eggs
2 Tbsp orange juice
2 tsp grated orange or lemon zest
2 tsp vanilla extract
brandy or liqueur for brushing, optional
Preheat the oven to 325 F. Grease two 9 x 5-inch loaf pans.
In a bowl, stir together the flour and baking powder until evenly mixed.
In another bowl, mix the nuts, raisins, pineapple and cherries. Remove 2 Tbsp of the flour mixture and toss with the fruit until everything is evenly coated. Set both the fruit mixture and the flour mixture aside.
In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until creamy — this will take three to five minutes or so. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each one. Then add the flour mixture, in 2 or 3 portions, alternately with the orange juice and beat well after each addition. Finally, stir in the fruit mixture, the orange or lemon zest and the vanilla, and mix just until everything is evenly combined. The batter will be quite thick, but that’s OK. Spoon batter into the prepared loaf pans. Bake 60 to 70 minutes, until the top is browned and a toothpick poked into the centre of a cake comes out clean.
Let cakes cool for 30 minutes in the pans, then remove and let cool completely on a rack. At this point you can brush the tops and sides with brandy (or whatever liqueur you like) to add a little zip, or just leave the loaves naked. Either way, wrap tightly in foil and let the cakes age for a day or two before serving, to allow the flavours to blend.
Makes two horrible fruitcakes that are not very horrible at all.
Eric Akis is the author of the hardcover book Everyone Can Cook Everything. His columns appear in the Life section Wednesday and Sunday.
