Alaskan Sourdough Fruitcake

Title: Alaskan Sourdough Fruitcake
Yield: 6 Servings
Categories: Cakes 

Ingredients: 

  1 1/2 c  Golden, seedless, and puffed
           -seeded raisins, combined
      4 c  White flour
      1 ts Baking soda
  1 1/2 c  Dried currants
      1 ts Salt
      1 c  Plus 2 tb Blackberry Cordial
           -or other wine
      1 ts Cinnamon
      1 ts Cloves
      1 ts Allspice
      1 c  Alaskan Sourdough Starter
    1/2 ts Mace
      6 tb Butter
      3 c  Candied fruit; green and red
           -cherries, pineapple,
           -orange, citron and ging
      1 c  White sugar
      1 c  Brown sugar
      3    Eggs, well beaten
      1 c  Chopped nuts
      2 tb Grated lemon rind


  Soak raisins and currants in 1 cup wine overnight. Remove starter from
  refrigerator and set, tightly covered, in warm place overnight. It should
  be in at least a two cup container as it will just about double its volume
  overnight.  In the morning, cream butter with sugar and beat in eggs and
  lemon rind.  Drain wine from raisins into creamed mixture. Stir in starter
  and 3 cups of the flour sifted with the soda, salt and spices. Sprinkle the
  remaining 1 cup of flour over the fruit and nuts in a large bowl. Toss and
  shake until well-coated. Add to batter and mix thoroughly. Turn into loaf
  pans which have been generously buttered. Let stand in warm place for 30
  minutes.  Bake in oven preheated to 300 with a pan of water on floor of
  oven and rack as near as possible in middle of oven. Bake about 2-1/2 hours
  for medium-sized loaves watching carefully to see that they do not brown to
  quickly. Test with toothpick. Remove from oven, turn pans on sides and
  allow to set for a few minutes before taking from pans. When cold drip 2
  tbsp. of wine over each cake. As soon as it is absorbed, wrap tightly in
  cellophane freezer paper and store in refrigerator or freezer. They improve
  with age.
  
  From: Breads and Coffee Cakes with Homemade Starters Shared By: Pat
  Stockett
  
  From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini