HOLIDAY FRUIT AND NUT CAKES

Steps:

• Combine the fruit and rum or brandy in bowl, cover, and microwave for 4 to 5 minutes, until the mixture comes to a boil. Leave covered, and let rest at room temperature for 1 hour In a large bowl, cream butter until soft, add sugar, salt, spices, and baking powder. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add half the flour and all the syrup. Add the remaining flour and the juice or water. Mix well. Fold in the fruits (with any remaining liquor), and the nuts. Grease bottom and sides of pans. This recipe makes enough for 8 mini-loaf pans (5 1/2" x 3" x 2" tall); two 9" x 5" loaf pans Or, use the pans of your choice: fill them 3/4 full. Tent with aluminum foil; don't fasten it down, just lay a sheet gently atop the pan. Bake the cakes on the middle shelf of a preheated 300°F oven, removing the foil halfway through the baking time for the mini loaves, or about 1 hour before the end of the baking time for larger loaves. Mini loaves will bake for about 1 hour, 50 minutes; the full-size loaves for about 2 1/2 hours. Bake until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, and the top crust seems firm all over, including in the center. While you don't want to burn the crust of these cakes (that's what the foil helps prevent), you also don't want to underbake them. If you're at all uncertain, let them go another 5-10 minutes, putting the foil back on, if necessary. Remove the cakes from the oven, to racks for 10 minutes. Carefully turn them out onto a rack under which you've placed a piece of parchment, plastic wrap, or waxed paper. Brush the cakes all over with rum, brandy, vanilla syrup, or spiked vanilla syrup, Wrap the cakes in cheesecloth or parchment paper, then in aluminum foil or plastic wrap, and store them in a cool, dry place. Unwrap the cakes every week (for up to 5 weeks) and brush them with more liquor or syrup. They'll keep for several months this way, as long as they're tightly wrapped. The flavor improves and mellows over time.