Mrs. Littlejohn's Fruitcake
Submitted by janiebakes on August 10, 2006 at 1:22 pm

DESCRIPTION
Mrs. Littlejohn's Fruitcake

SUMMARY
Yield 0 File under cakes

INSTRUCTIONS
Mrs. Littlejohn's Fruitcake

2 1/2 cups sugar ( divided use)
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
2 cups flour
3/4 cups chopped nuts ( walnuts, pecans or hazelnuts)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup citron or candied fruitcake mix
1 cup pitted dates
3/4 cup buttermilk
one orange

Squeeze juice from the orange and mix with 1/2 cup of sugar. Set aside.

Sift the flour and baking soda together, set aside. Put the candied fruit and dates through a meat grinder on the fine blade. Cream the butter with 2 cups sugar, beat in eggs one at a time. Stir in ground up fruits, chopped nuts. Add the buttermilk alternately with the flour mixture. Put into a well greased loaf pan and bake at 300 degrees for 1 and 1/2 hours. Let cool slightly, remove from pan and poke all over with a skewer. Pour orange juice/sugar mixture over the warm fruitcake.

My mom had a meat grinder but I don't so I run the candied fruit and dates through the food processer with some of the sugar called for.
I've made some changes over time. I use rum or brandy instead of the orange juice. Also, I add well drained maraschino cherries and pineapple chunks to the batter. You can add dried fruit to the batter too instead of the cherries and pineapple. I have added enough fruit at times that I bake it in a tube pan instead of a loaf pan. If you want to bath the fruitcake in rum and let it mellow in a tin for a few weeks then use the original recipe only, no added fresh or dried fruit.