I have to start by saying it took me some time to get this right since the original recipe said: eggs, butter, flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and fruit soaked in rum or brandy. Mix. Put in pans and bake until done. Wrap in liquor soaked cheesecloth and put in tins to rest. To serve top with marzipan rolled to 1/4 inch, ice with buttercream.
Here's how I have interpreted her recipe:
Two large plastic tub of glaced cherries red and green, sliced. If you can't find big tubs get four of the small ones. Cut the cherries in half and put into a clean mayonnaise jar.
Add half a package of apricots chopped, two small packages of candied pineapple, and a third box each of golden raisins and currants. Put in about a half cup or a little more of rum, and put the top on. I use a really nice dark rum, twelve years old called El Dorado. Let it sit overnight, turning it a few times. It can sit as long as a week, just keep turning it to soak the fruit. I forgot to add that I keep putting rum in to keep the fruit wet until I use it. Today I found I had used about a half bottle... just saying.
To make the cake:
2 Cups butter, softened
2 cups sugar
Beat until light
Add 6 eggs one at a tome and beat well. (I add a tablespoon of vanilla here.)
In a separate bowl whisk 3 1/2 cups flour with 2 teaspoons soda and 1 tsp. salt.
Mix the flour into the batter a third at a time, then put the fruit and whatever liquid is left in the jar into the batter. Let me insert here that occasionally I use some candied ginger chopped into a small dice added to the batter. It isn't original but it is good. I also add pecans to the recipe, about a cup and a half. And for those who love pecans, lightly toast a cup and a half of pecan halves and add to the batter when cool.
Divide into loaf pans, (how many depends on the size of them. I use foil pans from the grocery as they can be saved and used to ship the cakes in. I usually get at least four cakes and maybe a couple of miniature ones.) prepared with butter and flour, or use one of the good baking sprays (I like Pam for Baking)
Bake at 350 degrees F. until a skewer is clean when inserted in the center. I usually plan on at least an hour maybe more depending on how much liquid was left in the jar.
Let them cool, baste them with more rum, wrap in wax paper and foil, store where it's cool (fridge or like me, the back porch since it's cold now.) I usually let them soak at least two weeks, but in the cold they can sit for a month or more.
I use marzipan from the sticks you can get at the grocery store in the baking section. Be sure to buy marzipan and not almond paste. Roll it out on a board dusted with confectioner's sugar, about a 1/4 inch thick. Cut into rectangles using one of the loaf pans as a guide.
Buttercream Icing
1 cup butter softened
1 box of confectioner's sugar
1 tablespoon of vanilla
cream
beat the butter, add the sugar gradually with the vanilla, add cream as needed to make a thick spreadable icing.
Assemble the cakes:
Put a dab of icing in the middle of the top of a cake, place a slab of marzipan on top, spread marzipan with buttercream and let set. Decorate top at opposite corners with a glaced cherry,