This cake is an amalgamation of many great American classics. Inspired by the fruit-fi lled
lane cake and Lady Baltimore cake but with the fl avor profi le of a boozy English fruitcake
crossed with a spice cake, this hybrid beauty celebrates all that an American holiday
cake can be. Fruitcake came to the United States via Europe, and over the years, we’ve
tinkered with the recipe, adding jewel-toned red and green candied maraschino cherries
and packed with America’s favorite nut: pecans. We also have a penchant for stuffi ng our
cakes with spirit-soaked fruit, like in the aforementioned lane cake and Lady Baltimore
cake. Then there’s the Japanese fruitcake, a Southern favorite that has nothing to do with
Japan whatsoever. Two delicate white cake layers sandwich a spiced ambrosia-like fruit
fi lling all while coated in dreamy seven-minute frosting. With each of these classic cakes
in mind, we invented this two-layer stunner to embrace the best of all worlds.
Spiced Fruit Cake