This Caribbean-Inspired Fruitcake Will Have You Coming Back for Thirds

Re-gifted fruitcakes are the butt of many holiday jokes — and for good reason. They last forever and tend to get harder and drier as time goes on. But have you ever noticed that people never re-gift regular layer cakes? If there’s, say, carrot cake sitting around, people are going to want it eat it immediately and then lick the plate it was sitting on. But what if you encountered a fruit cake that was as delicious as said hypothetical carrot cake? One that was tender and boozy begging to be eaten right away? Meet Vallery Lomas’s Holiday Fruitcake with Dried Fruit.

During a class on the Food Network Kitchen app, Lomas, a lawyer-turned-baker (like, a champion of the Great American Baking Show kinda baker), explains why her fruit cake is different than many of the classic versions.

For starters, it’s made with rum and Caribbean-inspired dried fruits like dried pineapple plus unsweetened coconut flakes. Bite into a slice, and the flavors will transport you to a sunnier, warmer place and time (if you aren’t there already, that is!).

Second, there are some major textural differences … meaning her cake is actually moist! And tender! And everything you’d like in a cake! Instead of using those little artificially colored green and red cherries, she uses naturally dried fruit that she nukes in the microwave in a bowl full of rum to really plump them up and infuse them with moisture. Often commercially sold fruitcakes are so dry because the petrified dried fruits suck out moisture from the batter, but that’s not an issue here. Moreover, Lomas includes plenty of rum in the batter and brushes the whole finished cake with even more rum for mega moisture.

Finally, the cake is baked in a bundt pan, not a loaf pan, so it looks like something made in this century — rather than a gift that the three kings came bearing. Want the recipe? Head over to the app and ready thy appetite, because if there’s one thing that’s for certain, it’s that you’ll be having thirds.

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