Sights and sounds of Christmas and a recipe for you to print out for a fruitcake that's actually edible. New-Fangled Fruitcake is a rich pound cake, studded with chocolate, dried cherries and dates, pecans and rum - and topped with a white chocolate-cream cheese-lemon frosting.
Cake:
2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
2 tablespoons rum
2 tablespoons milk
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans
1/3 cup chopped, dried dates
1/2 cup dried cherries, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Frosting:
5 ounces white chocolate morsels
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Pecan halves and dried cherries for garnish
Make cake: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour a 9 1/2" 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. Beat 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, cherries and chocolate chips.
Turn into prepared pan. Bake one hour and ten minutes or until golden. Cool cake in pan ten minutes before removing from pan to finish cooling on rack.
Make frosting: Melt white chocolate in double boiler or microwave (should take just over a minute). In medium bowl, beat cream cheese and butter together until smooth with an electric mixer or by hand. Mix in lemon and melted chocolate. Generously frost the top of the cake, letting frosting ooze down the sides a little. Garnish. Note: Freezes well.