Why You'll Want To Coat The Filling In Your Fruitcakes
While the fruitcake may be a dessert traditionally associated with Christmas, it lends itself well to being enjoyed all winter long. This dense dessert has a stick to your ribs heartiness that makes it a great winter warmer without needing to be in and of itself served warm (though, by all means, pop that little guy in the microwave or toaster). And what doesn't say "winter" like an alcohol soaked cake, really?
And then of course, there's the cozy, seasonal practice of actually baking the darn thing. Which, depending how you prep your ingredients, can require months of prep work (per Southern Living). Okay, so really it's more like months of waiting. And after all that, what could be more frustrating than slicing into your finally finished cake to find that all that delectable dried fruit has sunk to the bottom of the cake like a ton of bricks? Yes, you can still eat it. Yes, it will probably still taste good, if not quite the same. But still, nobody wants to cook something that you can't turn around on a dime and repeat and have it flop. Luckily, we've got a quick and easy tip to help you avoid sunken fruit every time, with no guess work and no wait-and-see luck to rely on.
Bye bye, sunken fruit
To keep the preserved or candied fruit in your lovingly prepared fruitcake from turning out to be a major bust, all you have to do is follow one simple trick. Okay, a couple of simple tricks. The first is to be sure that your fruit is properly prepped. According to Baking Mad, it's important to chop up larger pieces of candied or dried fruit like glace cherries or dried apricots, as if used whole, their weight could cause them to sink to the bottom.
Once you've got that down, now there really is only one simple trick between you and a perfectly interspaced fruitcake. To get that perfectly buoyant bake, all you need to do is coat those well-chopped bits of fruit in a little bit of flour; don't feel bad if you've never done this before, it's one of the 11 mistakes everyone makes when making fruitcake. Simply put your fruit in a bowl and stir it up with a little bit of flour to coat the pieces in a thin, even layer. According to Reddit, the gluten in the flour helps bind the pieces in place.
What if you soak your fruit in alcohol? Can you still use this method? Of course, just lightly coat after removing your fruit and nuts from their alcohol or juice bath (per Medium). Baker and Nathaniel Reid Bakery owner Nathaniel Reid recommends soaking your fillings in Earl Grey tea if you're looking to go alcohol-free (per Southern Living).