A few years ago we tested out a bunch of vintage quick fruit cake recipes for the blog. This was the best of the bunch; quick, easy and good to eat right away. And it’s even better after it is been wrapped in some alcohol-spiked cheesecloth. Enjoy!
This year for our Christmas baking we decided to throw all caution to the wind and to venture into the land of doorstops and vibrantly-colored, nuclear fruit.
That’s right. This year it’s fruit cake for all!
What’s funny is that during the mid-century, fruit cake was already considered a “grandma’s dessert” and the butt of many a joke. So we thought it would be interesting to test out a couple of recipes from magazine ads of the time to see what the interpretations of “hip” or “quick” fruit cakes of the day would be.
But we had to have a place to start, so we picked this classic Wesson Oil fruit cake recipe from an ad in a 1953 Better Homes & Gardens magazine.
AuthorRetroRuth
From Wesson Oil Test Kitchen
Recipe Test
[cooked-sharing]
Mix together oil, brown sugar and eggs in a bowl. Vigorously beat with a spoon or electric mixer for two minutes.
Sift together 2 cups of flour and rest of dry ingredients. Stir into oil mixture alternately with the juice.
Sift remaining cup of flour over combined fruits and nuts. Pour batter over fruit and mix.
Line 2 greased loaf pans with paper. Pour batter into pans. Place a pan of water on the lower rack of the oven.
Bake cakes for 2½ to 3 hours in a slow oven (275 degrees). *Mine took 2½ hours to bake*
Cool on racks without removing the paper. When cool, remove paper and seal in a covered container in a cool place to ripen.
Ingredients
Directions
Mix together oil, brown sugar and eggs in a bowl. Vigorously beat with a spoon or electric mixer for two minutes.
Sift together 2 cups of flour and rest of dry ingredients. Stir into oil mixture alternately with the juice.
Sift remaining cup of flour over combined fruits and nuts. Pour batter over fruit and mix.
Line 2 greased loaf pans with paper. Pour batter into pans. Place a pan of water on the lower rack of the oven.
Bake cakes for 2½ to 3 hours in a slow oven (275 degrees). *Mine took 2½ hours to bake*
Cool on racks without removing the paper. When cool, remove paper and seal in a covered container in a cool place to ripen.
Notes
We mostly picked this because of the “famous” in the name. I assumed this meant that this recipe had been around for some time!
This was a really easy cake to put together. Actually, it wasn’t so much as a cake as a quick bread, like banana bread.
It even looks like banana bread batter! Except for the red and green cherries.
The biggest difference between this and banana bread was the incredibly long cooking time, similar to the long cooking time in our previous adventures into fruit cake (pork cake!).
But all-in-all, this bread came together quickly, smelled good while baking and looked pretty festive.
I don’t even mind the cherries that much!
“This is good. Tastes like a fruit and nut cake.”
The Verdict: Good
From The Testing Notes:
Good fruit and nut flavor. Not too moist, but not dry either. Cake itself is good, but not very spicy. Would benefit from extra spices and some rum or brandy! Good overall-would be very tasty as a breakfast bread.
Could you tell me if the 1953 Better Homes and Garden magazine you got the Famous Wesson Oil Fruit Cake recipe from was the Christmas edition. My mother-in-law saved this recipe and made it often. I would dearly love to have the magazine it came out of.
I couldn’t find Mom’s Wesson clipping this morning, but this sure looks like it! It makes an excellent fruitcake, even though my husband thinks fruitcake is merely a delivery system for hard sauce. I remember going to the restaurant supply store downtown to get the freshest candied fruit — it’s very hard for me to steel myself to using the stuff out of the shiny plastic containers!
My mother-in-law used prune juice so cake darker, and increased the fruit. I am trying to find her recipe.