They aren’t alike enough to be siblings; cousins at best.
A couple of columns ago, I shared a Japanese Fruitcake recipe from my late aunt by way of my late mother. It had two plain vanilla layers with a spice/cocoa layer in the middle.
Then Mrs. Florine Jordan of Conway sent me another Japanese Fruitcake recipe, quite different from the one I have used forever. I think, although I haven’t yet baked it, that hers is better than the one I use – so it may be “bye-bye, Aunt Alice.” I have also found other recipes with the same title and no two are alike, but from the reading I think Mrs. Jordan’s will be the best of the lot. With coconut and pecans, how can it not be good?
She says this is a good year-round recipe, and she makes it for family gatherings, etc., in summer. If she doesn’t, someone always asks, “Where is the Japanese Fruitcake?”
Mrs. Jordan has been a member of Juniper Bay Baptist Church in Waccamaw Baptist Association for more than 50 years. Rodney Hord is pastor.
Florine Jordan
During those years, she taught Sunday school, worked in the nursery, and was church clerk for 17 years.
Her husband “Buster,” as he has always been known, has retired from the Coca-Cola Company and she still prepares meals – not large ones as formerly, but three small meals each day.
The Jordans have two children – a son Tommy and his wife Linda, and a daughter Renee and her husband, Kenny Todd, who live nearby. They lost a son who died at the age of 15.
Mrs. Jordan was given the recipe by her mother who got it from her mother, Ola Hucks, and has been baking it since 1954. When she first began baking the cake, she didn’t have an electric mixer and used a spoon. She still uses a spoon. The batter is thick and the spoon does well. It has no milk; that’s not an omission.
This cake is a good “keeper,” so make it anytime during the week when you have time and it will be ready for you after church for … Sunday Dinner.
Japanese Fruitcake
1 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
6 eggs
1 cup chopped pecans
½ pound coconut (she has used frozen but prefers the canned, flaked kind)
1 1-pound box raisins
3 cups self-rising flour, sifted
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Grease and flour three 8- or 9-inch cake pans.
Combine all ingredients and mix well. Pour into three prepared pans. Bake for 20 minutes or until done. Cool slightly, then frost with icing (recipe below).
Icing
½-pound coconut, flaked (frozen or canned)
4 large oranges, peeled and cut into small pieces
2 cups sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
4 tablespoons flour
1½ cups boiling water
Put water into a medium-sized pot and heat to boiling. Add remaining ingredients and cook for 20 minutes on low heat. Spread between layers and on top and sides of cake while icing is still warm.
This cake is best if cooked and stored in refrigerator about a week.