those Christmas cakes

My side of the family finally got together to celebrate Christmas. . .so I finally got to give my siblings the blackberry brandy and Christmas cakes that we had made.  They were a big hit.  Looks like I just might have to make them both next year.

Since I never recorded the recipe when I made them, I'll put it up now.  The finished, "aged" cakes were surprisingly good.  Definitely too strong to have more than a little taste, but with the two main ingredients being butter and rum. . . just how bad could they be? :)
Fruit:

• 8 ounces golden raisins
• 8 ounces dark raisins
• 5 ounces dried cherries
• 8+ dried apricots
• 6+ dried prunes
• zest from 1 orange
• juice from 1 orange  

Other ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups packed brown sugar
• 6 eggs
• 3/4 cup molasses  
• 3/4 cup orange or apple juice (or rum)   

I put all of the fruit in a glass bowl and put the orange juice and about 1/2 cup of Captain Morgan Spiced Rum over them.  I then let them soak for a couple of days.  Right before mixing with the other ingredients, I dredged the fruit with 1/2 cup of flour.

I preheated the oven to 275 degrees and greased and floured the pans.  I used 7 small pans.  They were actually ramekins and worked really well.

I mixed 2 cups flour, baking soda, cloves, allspice, cinnamon, and salt and set aside.

In mixer, I creamed butter until light.  From there, I gradually added the brown sugar and eggs.  Next, I alternated between adding the molasses and juice mixture and the flour mixture.  I folded in the floured fruit.

Put in pans and bake.  The recipe called for 3 hours, but because my pans were so little, I only baked them for a little over 1 hour.  I removed from pans and cooled on a rack. 

From there, I lined a really good Tupperware container with waxed paper and put the cakes on that.  With a toothpick, I poked lots of holes in each cake and put about a tablespoon of spiced Captain Morgan rum over each.  I put a piece of waxed paper on top and a dishtowel  over that and sealed container.  At first, I turned the cakes over about 2 times a week and reapplied the rum.  After a while,  I only did it one time a week. 

A day before giving them as presents, I rolled a thin circle of almond paste and put it on top of each.  One set of directions said to do this--I'm guessing because the cakes are damp.  I did one without the almond paste, and it was fine, so I may forego using it next year.  I then iced each cake with cream cheese icing and let it sit out to dry overnight.  I then used red grossgrain ribbon to make a bow on each and wrapped in cling wrap.

Cute, I think!