Plum Pudding

I love this recipe. Not only does it taste excellent, and not like fruitcake at all - even though it does have some "kick" to it-, it's healthy made mostly from fruit. It can be made gluten free and nut free for those who have allergies and are generally limited in the selection available to them for holiday treats.

This recipe takes 2 days to make, just because you need to soak the fruit overnight in your chice of alcohol, but that doesn't take long at all.

day 1-
Ingredients:
2 cups raisins
1 cup pitted prunes
3/4 cup currants
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 cup guiness stout beer (or rum for gluten free)

Preparation:
mix fruit together with beer, cover and let soak overnight in refridgerator


day 2-
Ingredients:
1 cup flour (wheat or non-gluten)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup mixed candied fruit
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 c fine breadcrumbs (or leave these out)
8 tbsp butter
2 eggs

Preparation:
Sift all dry ingredients together in a bowl, in another bowl add the butter, eggs and candied fruit in with mixture that has been soaking overnight. Combine contents of both bowls and spoon into a bundt pan or other cake pan of your choice. You will now need to use a double boiler and place the cake in to steam for 2 hours on low heat. I just use a really big canning pot and put an inch or so of water in the bottom.

You will know it is finished when you can smell it, and when it seems to have solidified together in the pan. Let cool a few minutes and remove to a cool plate for serving. It is best served warm with rum sauce. See recipe below.