Christmas Fruit Cake

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1/4 cup raisins or currents
• 1/2 cup dried candied fruit (I went with the standard cherries, but mango or pineapple could be a nice alternative)
• 1/4 cup dark rum
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup white rice flour
• 1/4 cup glutinous rice flour
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 tbsp milk
• 1/4 cup chopped nuts (pecans are standard, I tried sliced almonds this time)

Directions:

1. Soak all the fruits in the rum for about one day.
2. Cream together butter and brown sugar, beat in egg.
3. Mix dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, then add into butter mixture along with molasses and milk.  Stir in the fruit (with any remaining rum from the bowl) and nuts.
4. Pour into a greased small loaf pan.
5. Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes.  Cool the cake in the pan, then invert the pan to remove it.
6. Traditionally now the cake would be stored for several weeks (up to 10 in some recipes) wrapped in rum-soaked cheesecloth and parchment paper inside an airtight container.  I'm going to it out after about 4 weeks to see if that is long enough to achieve an adequate result.