I may be a bit early.......

I am a bit early, but I have started my Christmas baking! I happened to be in a store with good prices on dried fruit and decided to stock up for fruit cake making and I thought, why not go ahead and get a start on the actual baking? Fruitcake freezes really well and I always make it right after Thanksgiving. 

I also wanted to share a little tip. This time I tried lining the bottoms of Un-greased pans with  parchment paper. It works beautifully!! The paper keeps the loaf in one piece and I didn't have any problems with corners or one sticky cranberry stuck to the bottom. I don't know why I didn't try this before! But I don't normally keep parchment paper around the house and lining pans always seemed a bit fiddly. Another bonus, the pans are a lot cleaner, so quicker to wash!

Christmas Cranberry Cake (Fruit Cake)

1 1/2 cups butter

3 cups brown sugar

6 eggs

3/4 tsp baking powder

3 cups flour

1 cup raisins

1 cup chopped dates

1 cup dried pineapple

1 cup other dried fruits such as kiwi, papaya, mango, passion fruit (optional)

1 1/2 cups chopped apple

1 1/2 (12 oz) bags fresh or frozen cranberries

1 cup walnuts

Mix all dried and fresh fruit in a bowl. Stir 1 cup of flour into fruit and set aside. In large bowl cream together butter and sugar, then add eggs. Mix in flour and baking powder. Fold fruit mixture into batter. Line the bottom of un-greased pans with parchment paper, bake at 275 degrees for about 35-45 mins.

(To see the original post with more info on the fruit I use, see this post.)

After having a sunny and mild autumn, we are finally having typical November weather, dark and rainy. Which just makes me want to bake yummy things! 

Anyone else craving gingerbread cookies??