Jean Anderson Cooks - Recipe of the month. Excerpts from Jean Anderson's cookbooks

Recipe of the Month

Southern Cooking by Jean Anderson - Click Here to order this book online

Recipe adapted from A Love Affair with Southern Cooking
© Jean Anderson 2007

JAPANESE FRUITCAKE
Makes One 9-Inch, 4-Layer Cake

It isn’t Japanese, it isn’t fruitcake, and it’s unknown in some parts of the South. Where it is known, however, mainly the eastern Carolinas (although it was a Carter family Christmas favorite when the former president was growing up in Plains, Georgia), it’s both classic and beloved. Recipes vary significantly. Some cooks fold crushed pineapple and/or diced Maraschino cherries into their filling, some prefer a tart lemon-coconut filling, some use a spice cake batter only. The recipe for the two-tone version here, for me the quintessential Japanese fruitcake, was given to me years ago by Pauline Gordon, a housing specialist with the NC Agricultural Extension Service. It’s an old family receipt from Kingstree, South Carolina.

Cake:
- 3 cups sifted cake flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, slightly softened
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup seedless raisins or dried currants
- 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Filling:

1 1/2 cups fresh orange juice
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
Finely grated zest of 1 large orange
Finely grated zest of 1 large lemon
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup unsifted all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups freshly grated coconut or sweetened flaked coconut

For Cake: Preheat oven to 350° F. Coat four 9-inch layer cake pans well with nonstick oil-and-flour baking spray and set aside.

Sift cake flour, baking powder, and salt onto wax paper and set aside also.

Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla in large electric mixer bowl at moderate speed 2 to 3 minutes until fluffy. Beat eggs in one by one, then at low speed add sifted dry ingredients alternately with milk, beginning and ending with dry. Beat after each addition only enough to combine; over-mixing will toughen cake.

Divide batter in half. Quickly dredge raisins and pecans in all-purpose flour and fold into half of batter along with cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg.

Divide yellow batter between two pans, then spice batter between remaining two.

If possible, bake all four layers at same time on middle oven rack 20 to 25 minutes or until cake tester inserted in middle comes out clean. Otherwise, bake two yellow layers, then two spice. Cool baked layers in upright pans on wire racks 15 minutes, then invert on racks and cool to room temperature.

Meanwhile, prepare Filling: Combine all ingredients but coconut in large, heavy, non-reactive saucepan, set over moderately high heat, and cook, stirring constantly, 5 minutes until thickened and smooth. Reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered, stirring now and then,10 minutes. Add coconut and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, 20 to 25 minutes until consistency of marmalade.

To assemble Cake: Center a spice layer on large round plate and spread generously with filling. Top with a yellow layer, press firmly into place, and spread with more filling. Repeat -- spice layer, yellow layer -- each time pressing new layer firmly into one underneath and spreading with filling – don’t be stingy. Remaining filling goes on top of cake, though if some dribbles down sides, that’s fine.

Let cake stand at least 24 hours before cutting; this gives filling time to seep into cake and firm up a bit.