Robin Benzle's New-Fangled Fruitcake with White Chocolate-Cream Cheese Frosting
Invented because it was about time fruitcake had chocolate, was missing those unidentifiable green and yellow chunks, and had a thick layer of decadent frosting.
Ingredients
Cake:
2 cups flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
4 eggs
2 tablespoons rum
2 tablespoons milk
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
½ cup coarsely chopped pecans
1/3 cup chopped dried dates
½ cup dried cranberries
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Frosting:
1 white chocolate candy bar (5 ounces)
1 package (8 ounce) cream cheese, softened
¼ cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Pecan halves and dried cranberries for garnish
The Recipe
Make cake: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour a 9 ½” x 5 1/2” loaf pan. In medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.
In another small bowl, beat together eggs, rum and milk. In food processor, beat butter until creamy. With processor running, slowly add sugar, occasionally scraping the bowl. When all sugar has been added, process two minutes more. Add egg mixture and beat one minute. Add flour mixture a third at a time until thoroughly mixed. Using the pulse button, quickly fold in pecans, dates, cranberries, and chocolate chips.
Turn into prepared loaf pan. Bake one hour and ten minutes, or until golden. Cool cake in pan ten minutes. Remove from pan and finish cooling on wire rack.
Make frosting: In the top of a double broiler over hot, not boiling water, melt white chocolate, stirring constantly. Set aside. In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Mix in butter, lemon juice and the melted chocolate. Generously frost the top of the cake, letting frosting ooze down the sides a little. Garnish. Note: Freezes well (unfrosted)
