Coconut, Citrus and Ginger Fruitcake Recipe - Viet World Kitchen (2024)

The mention of fruitcake makes many people grimace but not me or my family. We like fruitcake, ever since someone gifted us one in the late 1970s. It was a commercially made one in an old-fashioned looking tin. The moist, dark, slightly boozy jewel-toned cake tasted good. Loaded with goodies, the American fruitcake evoked Asian moon cakes (bánh Trung Thu in Vietnamese) that are filled with chopped mixed nuts and sweetmeats. There are moon cake haters and lovers, and we Nguyens love bánh Trung Thu because we make our own.

As with many polarizing foods, personal experience and context shape your perception. In the incredible cookbook, The Taste of Country Cooking, iconic restaurateur and author Edna Lewisexpressed giddy enthusiasm for fruitcake:

Late September was a fine time to make the Christmas fruitcake. They were rainy days in September went outside work was curtailed and the cookstove was on, making the kitchen warm and cozy. The family was around and friends were dropping in — chopping fruit, grinding spices, and sampling homemade wine, trying to decide which one was best for the cake, and sipping a bit and whiskey as well. Preparing the cake became a festive occasion, and almost as exciting as Christmas itself. . . . Fruitcake is so special and lasts so long that only the best ingredients should be used in it.

My husband’s family — his mother and aunt, baked fantastic fruitcakes that they aged for weeks, soaking them in liquor. He was extra delighted to marry me because I enjoy fruitcake and make it too. I learned to booze up the cake from his Aunt Helen. She’s long passed away, but she taught me to be patient and let the cake mature.

Fruitcake History

Turns out that fruitcakes aren’t a uniquely American thing. According to Jesse Rhodes of Smithsonian Magazine, ". . . the modern fruitcake can be traced back to the Middle Ages as dried fruits became more widely available and fruited breads entered Western European cuisine.” There’s yeast-leavened German stollen, energy-bar-ish Italian panforte and dark Caribbean black fruitcake. Some say that Italian panettone is a type of fruitcake, too.

Reinforcing Lewis's point, Rhodes writes in the article that because of the high expense of ingredients, fruitcakes were a food of celebrations — weddings and holidays. That’s how fruitcake became a special event food. The British royals mark marriages with elaborate wedding fruitcakes, which may be well-preserved under royal icing and sold at auction. How fruitcake leapt into American Christmas tradition is unclear.

Creating your Best Fruitcake

Maybe the problem people have with fruitcake is that the confection is defined by poorly made commercial products. Check the Zingermans’ gourmet mail order food catalog and you’ll note that fruitcakes cost a pretty penny. Good ones are prized! Aged, “vintage” fruitcakes cost extra.

With all that backstory on glorious fruitcake, I make my own, and each year my fruitcake changes. For 2020, as a seasonal nod, I made shortcut candied citrus peel from the neighbor’s Meyer lemons and navel oranges from the farmer’s market. See the recipe Note for details.(Or, you can use this other recipe and chop up after cooking.)

Spicy, Boozy Fruitcake Tweaks

Like Lewis writes, fruitcake can and should be calibrated to reflect a specialness. I like to tilt mine toward Asia. To invite a bigger tropical presence, I included unsweetened coconut and used coconut oil in the batter. Ginger in candied, grated, and powdered forms furthered an Asian presence.

After tinkering with making Chinese five-spice powder, I rejiggered the spice blend for my fruitcake too, making it bolder and bigger with more spices. I used to think of fruitcake as only fruit and nuts but the spices -- which were traditionally seen as an exotic, precious ingredient, matter too. People went through great effort to obtain the spices and grind them fresh.

This year, I seasoned the fruitcake with extra care, tweaking the spices and other aromatics. I’ve written the recipe below to inspire you to create your own spice blend. There are options for how you want to dial in the flavors to warm, sweeten, zing, or add savory, pungent notes.

You can taste and adjust flavors at the forefront to produce a fruitcake that shines. Furthermore, you may mix different kinds of dried fruits and candied sweetmeats, as well as nuts and seeds. I use a Chinese liquor called mei kwei lu chiu but brandy, cognac, or dark rum would be swell. The liquor is used twice — to soak the ingredients and then to soak the finished cake.I poke holes in the warm cakes and pour over the liquor via a tiny measuring cup (essentially a jigger).

Fruitcake Size and Shapes

It’s fun to make fruitcake. It’s even better to gift it and eat it. This year, I baked the fruitcakes in disposable paper loaf pans so they may be baked and then mailed easily to family and friends. My batch was 1.5 times the recipe below, but the new stove has a largeish oven. If your oven is small, you may want to bake on two racks and switch positions midway.

And, finally, you can easily make a gluten-free fruitcake. Just use a 1:1 flour blend. My go-to is Bob's Red Mill brand, which has a weight equivalent to that of regular all-purpose.

I hope you concoct your own fruitcake because it’s delicious, easygoing, and gloriously festive. Let’s celebrate our staying power because we made it through 2020!