Peach Fruitcake. A decades old family recipe.

Peach Fruitcake. A decades old family recipe for a dense, flavourful and very moist fruitcake for the Holiday season, with instructions for soaking in brandy too.

Peach Fruitcake. A decades old family recipe.

Originally published Nov 2020.

Some recipes that I post here, like this Peach Fruitcake, take me right back to my childhood. They especially remind me of my early baking days in our family kitchen, even before I was a teenager.

As I have written about many times before, the lead up to the Christmas season was a virtual flour storm in our house! Endless batches of Cookie Squares, big batches of Molasses Raisin Bread and of course several fruitcakes filled the weeks before the holidays.

Peach Fruitcake.

I remember very clearly, a sort of competition between bakers among our friends and family, was a bit of an undercurrent during those times as well. It seemed everyone wanted something new to bake for Christmas.

During the many visits to family and friends during the Holidays, I’d often sample a new treat the household baker had whipped up to impress their guests. Most often I left with the recipe to try for myself.

I like to mix red & green glacé cherries for extra colour.

Light vs Dark

Especially in fruitcakes though, baking reputations were made on the strength of your Cherry Cake, Apricot Raisin Cake, Dark Fruitcake or like this recipe, what we would have called a “Light Fruitcake”.

Light as an adjective, was by no means meant to describe the calorie content of these cakes. Indeed, as with most fruitcakes, they are veritable calorie bombs!

Peach Fruitcake ready for the oven.

Loaf sized cakes are perfect for gift giving.

Unlike a dark fruitcake, a light fruitcake was made without molasses or spices. It relied on the buttery batter base and the flavour of all this combined dried and candied fruits.

People sometimes fell into distinct camps when it came to preference for light or dark fruitcake. Many still do.

My mom and I were always firmly entrenched in the dark fruitcake camp. My Dad’s preference was always the opposite, he was, and still is, a dedicated light fruitcake fan.

Make it as loaf cakes too.

His description of a good light fruitcakes was that there should be ” only enough cake to hold the fruit together!”. In other words, the wanted his light fruitcake to be as moist and dense as our traditional dark fruitcake. 

Peach Fruitcake. Searching the archives.

When I thought about adding  a new light fruitcake recipe to the blog this year, my mind cast back to one we made many years ago.

I memory serves, the recipe was from my Aunt Marie. Like my mother, she was from Port-de-Grave and married dad’s brother Uncle Jim. 

Mom’s twin sister, Aunt Moo, also married one of the boys from the east end of Bay Robert’s. It seemed the ladies from port-de-Grave and the gents from  Bay Robert’s were a popular combination, as other examples of such pairings abounded. 

I’ve heard stories over the years about the bay freezing over in winter . Then the lads from the east end would walk across the on the bay ice to go “courting” in Port-de-Grave. Winter, apparently was not enough to conquer young love.

The origin of the Peach Fruitcake

But I digress. 

If my memory serves correctly, this Peach Fruitcake was a recipe from my Aunt Marie. When I messaged my mom for the recipe, she sent back a photo of the recipe, hand written on a sheet of loose leaf, school note paper.

A memory from the 70’s

The handwriting is my own, probably from about the age of thirteen. The recipe was tucked into a big blue ledger book, which, through tattered from years of use, still holds many of the recipes I learned and loved way back then. 

I’ve tweaked the original recipe a little and made the coconut optional in this version. The taste however is just how I remembered it. Utterly delicious!

So, happy baking this Holiday season. I hope you dredge up some old memories from Christmases past. They, like the peach fruitcake can be both comforting and tasty.
If you like this recipe, be sure to check out our entire collection of Favourite Newfoundland Christmas Cakes here.

Like this Peach Fruitcake recipe?

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Peach Fruitcake.

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Yield: 40 servings or more

Peach Fruitcake. A decades old family recipe.

Prep Time: 40 minutes

Cook Time: 2 hours 30 minutes

Total Time: 3 hours 10 minutes

Peach Fruitcake. A decades old family recipe for a dense, flavourful and very moist fruitcake for the Holiday season, with instructions for soaking in brandy too.

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Ingredients

• 5 cups of dried and candied fruit (raisins, glacé cherries, mixed citrus peel etc. (SEE NOTE )
• 1 can of peaches (drained, enough to make 1 1/2 cups mashed peaches)
• 3 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup dried (dessicated) unsweetened coconut (optional)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract.

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
2. Grease a 9 inch springform pan and line with parchment paper (or 2 loaf pans).
3. Pulse the peaches in a food processor (or mash with a fork)  to make a slightly chunky sort of mashed peaches. You don't want this silky smooth. Small pieces of peach should still be visible in the batter. Set aside for later.
4. Mix together  the flour, baking powder, salt (and coconut if you are using it). Set aside.
5. Cream the butter and sugar well.
6. Add the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition.
7. Fold in the flour mixture, alternately with the mashed peaches. Always begin and end with the dry ingredients. I generally add the dry ingredients in 3 portions and the mashed peaches in 2 portions.
8. With the last of the dry ingredients, fold in all of the dried and/or candied fruit.

Baking the Peach Fruitcake

1. Spread batter evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for about 2 1/2 hours or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
2. Cool the pan on a wire rack for 15 -20 minutes before removing from the pan to cool completely.
3. At this point you can poke small holes in the top and bottom of the cake with a fork or skewer and pour on 4 ounces of brandy, cognac or even a  favorite whiskey,. Pour half on the top, wait ten minutes, then flip it over and pour the remaining half on the bottom.
4. Soak several layers of cheesecloth in additional brandy if you like and wrap completely around the cake, then cover with several layers of plastic wrap and store in a COOL place. You can repeat this soaking procedure a couple of times over the net week or two weeks if you like. I generally do it a couple of times for this particular cake.
5. When serving, you can add a layer of marzipan or if you have decorated the top with fruit and nuts, brush with a simple glaze of equal parts water and sugar boiled together for about 10-15 minutes. 

Notes

For me this is a kind of cupboard cleaner recipe. Use whatever combination of fruit you like or have on hand. 

I used 2 cups raisins,  1 1/2 cups mixed candied citrus peel and 1 1/2 cups of glacé cherries. Substitute, mixed candied fruit, chopped dried apricots, dried cranberries, or anything else that would fit the bill; completely your choice.

This recipe makes a large cake that is meant to be served in small pieces, hence the high number of servings.

Nutrition Information

Yield

40

Serving Size

1
Amount Per Serving Calories 163Total Fat 5gSaturated Fat 3gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 2gCholesterol 26mgSodium 98mgCarbohydrates 29gFiber 1gSugar 18gProtein 2g

The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.

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