I’ve never been a big fruitcake person, but I’ve always loved dried fruit and panettone, which is the Italian version of fruitcake. What I love about panettone is that it’s lighter than regular fruitcake, it doesn’t have that heavy dense feeling. My mom was craving fruitcake, and with a plethora of dried fruit in the cupboards we pulled together this ‘lighter’ alcohol free fruitcake to cure the craving. Substituting regular dried fruit for the candied version and leaving out the alcohol in traditional fruitcake gives it a lighter flavor. Additionally, this recipe is for a single cake or loaf instead of the typical big batch meant for sharing with lots of family and friends. Sometimes it’s nice to have a small or single batch recipe.
Not Your Grandma’s Fruitcake
Ingredients
- 1 Cup mixed dried fruits cranberries, golden raisins, cherries
- ½ Cup dried apricots
- ½ Cup dried dates
- ½ Cup dried mango
- 1 ⅔ Cups flour
- ½ Cup brown sugar
- ½ Cup sugar
- 1 Cup cream cheese 8 oz block
- ⅓ Cup butter
- 2 Eggs
- 1 Teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¼ Teaspoon almond extract
- ½ Cup slivered almonds
- 1 Teaspoon baking powder
- ½ Teaspoon salt
- 1 Teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ Teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ Teaspoon allspice
- ¼ Teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 Cup Pecan halves for topping optional
- You need a total of 2 ½ cups dried fruit, I used the above mix, but you can use your preferred mix
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees
- Lightly grease a standard springform plan or 9x5 inch loaf pan and line with parchment paper
- Measure the flour and remove 2 tbsp to dust the fruit with later
- Add the baking powder, spices and salt to the remaining flour and set aside
- Cream the butter, sugars and cream cheese, until smooth and fluffy
- Next, add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition
- Beat in the vanilla and almond extracts
- Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until almost fully incorporated. A few streaks of flour in the batter should remain at this point.
- Toss the dried fruit mixture with the reserved 2 tbsp flour. This will prevent the pieces from sticking to each other.
- Fold the flour coated fruit and sliced almonds into the batter
- Spread batter evenly into the prepared pan
- Decorate the top with the cup of pecan halves if desired
- Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and let cool completely before removing from the pan
