It's a fact that not many people like fruit cake. Before this recipe, I had never tried fruit cake before. However, after making this, I am finding that it tastes pretty good! But I don't make it with lots of fruit in it. I make the Poor Man's Fruit Cake.

This recipe is dated around the early 1900s. Back in those days, fruit was expensive for people and many could not afford it. I suspect this recipe came about because the creator wanted to make a fruit cake but one that wouldn't cost a lot of money for people.



Poor Man's Fruit Cake



3 1/2 cups flour

1 cup brown sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 cup molasses

3 cups raisins

1 cup sour milk

1/2 cup melted butter

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. allspice



Set your oven to 360 degrees. Grease a bread pan with butter.



Put 4 tbsp. flour in a big bowl and pour all the raisins in it. Mix the raisins in the flour and get them coated evenly. If you don't want to have such big raisins in your fruit cake, you can cut the raisins in half and it will work just as good.



Next, dissolve baking soda in 1 tbsp. water and add it to the sour milk. If you don't have sour milk laying around, it's real easy to make. To make one cup of sour milk, let one cup of milk get to room temperature. If you're impatient like I am, you can always put the milk in the microwave for a few seconds to warm it up. Next, add 1 tbsp. vinegar or lemon juice and stir. Keep stirring until you notice the milk start to curdle. And there's your sour milk.



After making the sour milk, don't forget to add the dissolved baking soda to it. Add the molasses and beat some more. Add melted butter. Stir. Add in flour and brown sugar. Stir. Add in the rest of the spices and beat well.



The last step is to stir in the raisins. Once mixed, put it in the greased bread pan.



Bake in the oven for one hour.



The original directions say to bake in a moderate oven for one hour. A lot of recipes from this time period used directions such as slow, quick, moderate or fast oven. There are sites online that will help you decipher what degree to set your oven to if you come across baking directions like this. For a moderate oven, this can be anywhere from 350 to 375 degrees.



Once it is done baking, take it out of the oven and set aside. You will now need to make a syrup to pour over the fruit cake.



Boil 4 tbsp. sugar, 3 tbsp. water and 2 tsp. currant or grape jelly. Cook until it boils the remove from stove. You should be able to then pour it over the cake.



I've made this recipe many times and everyone loves it!