For generations of Americans, making fun of fruitcake has been a holiday tradition. Even Sabrina Carpenter cannot resist piling on. "Fruitcake just makes me sick," the pop star intones in a song on her new Christmas album that happens to be called Fruitcake.
But a Canadian pastry chef and master food preserver would like us to reconsider our assumptions. Camilla Wynne is the author of a new cookbook called Nature's Candy. It's an ode to the pleasures of candying fruits — and even the occasional vegetable — and baking with them.
Wynne said she completely understands why fruitcake got stuck with such a terrible reputation.
"I think it's because there's a lot of terrible candied fruit out there, unfortunately," she said. "Bright red or bright green glacé cherries, and the problem with those, of course, is that they don't taste like anything. It's fair that they get a bad rap, but they aren't representative of candied fruit generally."
Fruitcake is fantastic, says Wynne, if you use excellent fruit, especially fruit you candy yourself. Still, the idea of candying fruit at home seems daunting at best, at least to this NPR reporter (and enthusiastic amateur baker). "Oh, I hate that you're intimidated!" Wynne said in response to the hesitancy, "That's like the last thing I want. [But] people are. I understand that."
Candying fruit, Wynne insisted, is not any harder than boiling eggs. The technique is, basically, briefly simmering fruit in sugar water over the course of a few days.
"I'm candying a bunch of whole figs right now," she said. "Every day, it's not much more than watering your plants. They need to simmer for 10 minutes, so when I'm setting up to make dinner, I'll just turn them on and put on the timer."
Those candied figs are put to succulent use in Wynne's Florentine tart recipe, along with candied cherries and orange peel. Even to a fruitcake skeptic, the cake recipes in Nature's Candy look delicious. Her Tropical Terrazzo Cake (recipe below) uses coconut milk, lime juice and an array of candied tropical fruits. The cookbook also includes plenty of non-fruitcake recipes, such as caramel corn with candied ginger, and strawberry sugar cookies with candied jalapenos.
"You get all this jalapeno syrup with it too, and it makes a really good base for margaritas if you're into that kind of thing," Wynne noted with relish.
Back in the lockdown days of the pandemic, she added, many home cooks turned to baking bread. Candying your own fruit is similar, she says. It brings a sense of scaling up skills and quiet contemplation to the kitchen during a moment marked by violence and institutional turmoil around the world.
"Unwind, de-stress and connect to beauty," Wynne suggested. "The world's a bit nuts."
And what goes better with nuts, after all, than candied fruit?
Tropical Terrazzo Cake
By Camilla Wynne
"They paused to breathe in steam rising from the oven and took extra helpings of pound cake sliced to reveal a terrazzo pattern of candied citron and glace fruits," writes John Birdsall in one of my favorite culinary biographies, The Man Who Ate Too Much. The idea for this sturdy pound cake studded with chunks of candied tropical fruits and glazed with tart lime syrup came from that single line in this biography of icon James Beard. The book is full of literary descriptions like this that pull you right into the action, making it a pleasure to read. Most importantly, the book doesn't downplay his queerness. I recommend reading it while you enjoy a slice of this cake. Use a variety of candied tropical (or tropical-adjacent) fruits, keeping in mind that it can always be a mixture of homemade and store-bought. I usually use pineapple, kiwi, papaya, citron, ginger, and cactus pear.
Serves 16
For the Cake
230 g (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature (very soft)
533 g (2⅔ cups) sugar
1½ tsp salt
Zest of 1 lime
6 eggs, at room temperature
420 g (3 cups) all-purpose flour
250 mL (1 cup) full-fat coconut milk
500 g (2 cups) drained and chopped (½- to 1-inch pieces) mixed candied fruit, reserving the syrup
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Generously grease and amply flour a 10- to 12-cup Bundt pan and refrigerate the pan until it's time to fill it.
To make the cake, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, sugar, salt, and lime zest until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
With the mixer running on low speed, add one-third of the flour and then half of the coconut milk. Alternate until all the flour and coconut milk are incorporated.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then beat on medium-high for 30 seconds to make sure everything is well blended. Fold in the chopped candied fruit.
Transfer the batter to the prepared pan. Give the pan a hard tap on the countertop to help settle the batter. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes to 1 hour and 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, make the syrup.
For the Syrup
125 mL (½ cup) candied fruit
syrup (see Note)
60 mL (¼ cup) lime juice
2 Tbsp dark rum (optional)
NOTE You can use any candied fruit syrup for this recipe or use the reserved syrup from the cake method. To make the syrup, in a small pot, combine the syrup and lime juice. Bring to a boil and cook until it is reduced by half. Remove from the heat and stir in the rum, if using.
To assemble, carefully turn the cake out of the pan. Use all the syrup to brush the cake all over the top and sides. Cool completely. The cake will keep, well wrapped, at room temperature for at least 5 days.
Excerpted from Nature's Candy by Camilla Wynne. Copyright © 2024 Camilla Wynne. Published by Appetite by Random House®, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.
Edited for radio and the web by Meghan Sullivan, produced for radio by Chloee Weiner, produced for the web by Beth Novey
Copyright 2024 NPR
