Fruitcake Bars

Fruitcake bars are a delicious alternative to traditional dense fruitcake that can be made right in a 9 x 13 cake pan. Dried fruit and nuts can be soaked in bourbon for up to 24 hours and then folded into the cake batter. After baking, the cake is soaked in bourbon and topped with icing.

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Fruitcake tends to be a beloved or loathed baked good. I did not grow up eating it and had no interest in consuming it until well into my twenties. While working for a bakery, my boss asked me to develop a recipe for fruitcake and I somehow came up with these. The cake itself, while dense with fruit, is still tender and buttery. The use of dried fruit instead of candied fruit gives the cake a much more complex flavor and texture. I actually prefer to use a good bourbon for these fruitcake bars, but feel free to go the more traditional route with brandy or even a dark rum.

WHY YOU WILL LOVE THESE FRUITCAKE BARS

• 1. Make them in one day or several days. In the recipe notes below, I have options for making the fruitcake bars in a single day or spacing it out over several days.
• 2. Traditional but unique! These fruitcake bars always intrigue and end up surprising people. When I sold them at farmers markets I found they please both traditionalists and non-traditionalists. The bars are classic enough to satisfy those who grew up eating fruitcake and delicious enough to please those who didn’t.
• 3. Perfect for the holidays! Fruitcake bars make delicious gifts and really dress up cookie traya for holiday gatherings.
• 4. Make bars or loaves. Instead of baking bars in a 9 x 13 cake pan, you can divide the batter for this recipe into two 9 x 5 loaf pans instead. An iced loaf of fruitcake wrapped beautifully makes an excellent Christmas gift.
• 5. Uses mainly dried fruit and nuts. Fruitcake recipes often call for a load of candied fruit and nuts. Dried fruit is a little less expensive and you can easily find uses for the remaining fruit in other baked goods. The crystallized ginger called for in this recipe can also be used in my Giant Ginger Molasses Cookies. Extra pecans can find their way into Pecan Bars or a Pecan Pie. Extra dried fruit and nuts can be mixed into a batch of Honey Almond Granola.

A QUICK OVERVIEW OF HOW TO MAKE FRUITCAKE BARS

• 1. Soak the nut mixture. Various dried fruits and toasted pecan are chopped to a similar size and then soaked in bourbon, brandy or dark rum. The fruit can be soaked for 24 hours before making the bars or microwaved briefly to make the recipe all in one day.
• 2. Make the bar batter. Room temperature butter and sugars are creamed. Eggs, extracts, citrus zests and additional alcohol are added. A mixture of dry ingredients including ground spices is added. Finally the soaked fruit and nut mixture is folded in.
• 3. Bake the bars. The bar batter is baked in a greased 9 x 13 cake pan and then cooled. Alternatively, you can bake this batter in two 9 x 5 loaf pans.
• 4. Soak the bars. Once cooled slightly, the bars are soaked multiple times in your alcohol of choice.
• 5. Ice the bars. The bars are then topped with icing.