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TWO NIGHTS BEFORE BAKING DAY:
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Put all the fruit into a plastic, sealing container with one cup of wine. Toss it after a few hours to make sure the top fruit is in contact with the wine as well as the bottom fruit. (All in the spirit of equality and making all the fruit moist for baking.)
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ON BAKING DAY:
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Cream together 1/2 c. of butter and 1 3/4 c. dark brown sugar.
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Add 3 eggs and stir.
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Add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg, and stir them in.
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Mix in alternately 3 c. flour and 3/4 c. milk.
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Add 1 T. vanilla extract and 1/4 T. rum flavoring (for dear ol' Mom, even if you can't really taste the rum flavoring).
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ADD ALL THE FRUIT FROM THE CONTAINER THAT HAS BEEN SOAKING OVERNIGHT.
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(IT SHOULD HAVE ABSORBED ALL OF THE WINE.)
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(The finished batter will seem too thick to be likely to turn out right. You'll know you've got a recipe made for long, low temperature cook this way.)
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COOKING
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Find two (or three), standard loaf pans. Grease them. Pour half (or 1/3) the batter into each, depending on how big you want the fruitcakes to be and how long you want to cook them.
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Bake at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour (for two cakes). Insert a knife into the top middle to see if it comes out clean. If not, cook it a little longer. Test it the first time around 55 minutes to be safe, then at 3 to 5 minute intervals.
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AFTER COOKING
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Remove from oven and let the pans sit around until they are cooler, then run a knife around the edges to separate cakes from pans, free the bottoms (gently, with your favorite, clean burger flipping tool), and turn the pans over onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Send me a slice when you're finished!
