Welcome to Day Two of the Five Days of Fruit Cake! There are many, many reasons why I picked today’s fruit cake for testing. The first reason is because it has the name “mystery” in the title. Whenever recipes have the word “mystery” or “surprise” in the title, I can’t help making them.
The second reason I chose this recipe is that I found it to be very similar to the modern recipe to make cake pops! I was interested to see what a whole, molded cake would taste like.
- White cake mix, prepared and cooled
- 1 cup each of candied pineapple, lemon peel, orange peel and citron, cut up
- 1 cup whole red cherries
- 1 1/2 cup white seedless raisins
- 1 cup coconut, cut up
- 4 1/2 cups blanched almonds, cut
- 1 box fluffy white frosting mix or 1 can fluffy white frosting
- Crumble cooled cake into a very large bowl. Add fruit and frosting to crumbled cake and mix.
- Pack tightly into a foil-lined 10 inch tube pan or two loaf pans. Cover cake with foil and chill in refrigerator at least 24 hours. Cake should be kept refrigerated.
- Slice with a sharp knife.
At first, it seemed like this actually might work. The mixed fruit and nuts looked quite pretty.
However, you can see my tactical error in the background of this photo.
For some reason, I added TWO cans of frosting to this mix instead of one. I think it was because the original recipe calls for a boxed frosting mix which isn’t made anymore. I tried to find Jiffy’s white frosting mix for a substitute, but I couldn’t find that either. So, I decided just to sub canned frosting for the mix. But when I went to add the frosting, one can didn’t look like enough. And then I got to wondering how much frosting the frosting mixes actually made. In the ad it looked like quite a bit of frosting. But don’t fall into the same trap I did. One can of frosting is plenty!
But even with two cans, it still mixed up well and molded when it was chilled.
And it looked…interesting.
“This is the ugliest looking fruitcake I’ve ever seen.”
“I think it is kind of pretty. It looks like confetti.”
“It looks like barf.”
“Don’t judge. This might taste amazing.”
“How is it?”
“It tastes ugly, too.”
The Verdict: Not Fruit Cake
From The Tasting Notes:
This is NOT a classic fruit cake in any sense of the word, so we can just skip over whether this is a good fruit cake or not. It’s no good as a regular cake either, because it really isn’t a cake so much as a pile of goo. Maybe it would have been better if I would have only used one can of frosting, but I think it probably would have tasted the same, just been of a firmer texture. If you are looking for a truffle-like dessert, then maybe this is what you are looking for. Tastes a little bit like birthday cake ice cream with a bunch of random fruit and nuts mashed into it. The texture was pretty much like wet cake smooshed into a ball, or like a soft, grainy truffle. If you’ve ever had a cake pop, you know what I’m talking about.
OH MY GOD GIRL.
Hahahaha, it looks like something that crawled out of a cake graveyard — are you sure this isn’t a cake zombie for Halloween?
But seriously, how did Betty get that nice beige tone to her fruitcake?
Betty Crocker still makes the Fluffy White frosting mix, it’s just hard to find. Bet you could substitute a batch of 7-Minute frosting, since it’s pretty much the same thing. I would imagine with two whole cans of regular frosting, this cake was tooth-achingly sweet.
I agree with you–I think it looks kind of pretty!
That’s been my cake pop fail, too. Too much frosting. This cake looks vile but I love that you’re making fruitcakes! Haha…
I think it actually looks pretty–too bad it didn’t taste that way!
(It looks festive, like Christmas lights against a snowy lawn.)
I think it looks beautiful! Too bad it didn’t work out, with all those nice ingredients.
That’s the problem with no-bake things, they seldom turn out Martha-Stewart perfect, but often look gummy, oozy, or in the case of truffles, manhandled by somebody’s loving-hands-at-home.
I remember when this process was popular, for awhile any way. My mother never tried it, though, as she saw no point in mooshing a lot of cake together. That’s why I’ve never gotten into the cake pops thing. It’s just a redo of this. Some day people will be making fun of those things, too.
I love Tom’s comment “it looks like barf”. He’s such a trooper…
I found this site while searching for this recipe. My grandmother used to make it and it’s my aunts favorite. The boxed frosting would make a huge difference in the taste and texture, and she told me they served it frozen. She absolutely swoons when she talks about it. I think it would be worth another try, and to order the Betty Crocker boxed frosting mix online.
Also kind of feeling that all your ingredients were diced wayyyy too fine to truly replicate the original. The cherries and the almonds in the recipe are much larger. Love that this recipe from 1958 is so similar to making cake pops today.
Thanks, Lindsay! I will have to add this to the re-do list to try it with boxed frosting and served frozen!
Yeah, you may be right. They came pre-diced, so maybe I will have to find some next year that are chunkier!
maybe a springform pan with a plate on top weighted down…..for a few days in the fridge?
Yeah, I think this would have a chance with the boxed icing. The boxed icing is egg-white based, and is fat free (has no oil or shortening in it), is more like sweet meringue. Canned icing is mostly shortening, probably made this really goopy.
I think this might work as a cake ball recipe, with less frosting.
My Mama use to make this cake but she used one spice cake mix. It was delicious!