Sugar Plum Fruitcake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Many of you know that I’ve spent 2013 baking for Betty. It’s been a lively year of fun minion cakes, candy bar creations and snickerdoodle skillets. I’d anticipated some special holiday projects, and I was thrilled to learn I’d be recreating one of their Red Hot Holiday Trends! You see, each year the sweet minds behind Betty Crocker gauge what’s new and exciting in the baking world – turns out, fruitcake is so in!

But not just any old fruitcake (so leave those bright green and red candied cherries on the shelf!). We’re talking bourbon-plumped figs, juicy dates, plum jam filling and homemade cream cheese frosting. Frosting on fruitcake? Heck yes. Cheese paired with fruit is almost always a heavenly match.

This recipe uses Betty Crocker’s SuperMoist®  yellow cake mix as a base, and considering how lengthy most fruitcake recipes are, it’s a nice little shortcut to scratch-made flavor. I baked the batter in my three favorite 7-inch spring-form pans, but it’ll bake up perfectly as a 9-inch double layer cake, too.  

Red plum jam is used as the filling, and it plays well against the fruit and fragrant orange zest used in the cake batter. There’s a definite sweet-tart boozy goodness to this confection, and the creamy frosting helps to strike just the right balance.

Since some folks have a knee-jerk reaction to the word “fruitcake”, I’ll understand if you want to drop that moniker and just call this “Sugar Plum Cake. It’s really nothing like the traditional (read: brick) fruitcake you’ll see on Great Aunt Earnestine’s buffet. It’s moist and flavorful, and to me, it tastes just like Christmas.

Be sure to check out Betty’s take on the new fruitcake, and a slideshow of all the yummy trends by other Betty bloggers!

Sugar Plum Fruitcake

[click for printable version]

Yield: 12 servings

Source: Sprinkle Bakes original recipe

Prep: 30 minutes, total time with fruit-soaking up to 24 hours

Cake

1 box Betty Crocker SuperMoist® yellow cake mix

1/2 cup dried dates, chopped

1/2 cup dried figs, chopped

1/4 cup Kentucky bourbon

Zest of 1 orange

4 eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 cup water

1/2 cup slivered almonds, crushed

Filling

3/4 cup prepared red plum jam or jelly

Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

1 fresh, whole red plum

Corn syrup

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1. Combine the dates and figs in a small bowl. Pour over the bourbon and cover tightly. Allow fruit to soak for at least 2 hours or overnight (preferred).
2. Heat oven to 350F. Grease and flour three 7-inch cake pans (or two 9-inch); set aside.
3. Combine the following in a large bowl: cake mix, orange zest, eggs, vegetable oil and water. Mix well with an electric hand mixer. Fold in bourbon-soaked fruit and crushed almonds. Pour cake batter into prepared pans and bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cakes spring back when pressed in the center. Turn cakes out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
4. When cakes are cool, fill the layers with red plum jam. 
5. For the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in a large bowl. Beat well with a hand mixer until combined and creamy. Add powdered sugar a little at a time; beat on high speed until smooth and fluffy. Cover the cake in a thick coating of cream cheese frosting.  
6. For a wintry decoration, brush the fresh plum with a little corn syrup and roll in the granulated sugar. Place slightly off-center on top of the cake.  
7. Serve immediately. Store cake loosely covered in the refrigerator. Bring cake to room temperature before serving.

This post is sponsored by Betty Crocker, and is part of the Red Hot Holiday Trends of 2013.