Mississippi Christmas Cake.

I don't know this cake, but I found it in my newly-acquired vintage Craig Claiborne's Southern Cooking. I've meant to add some Craig Claiborne to my collection for a long time, and when I was made aware of this book in a food essay book, I looked around on Half.com and found one in near-perfect condition for $2! Can't beat that.......

Anyway, Craig was a Mississippi Delta boy (hailing from Sunflower, MS) who became the food editor at the New York Times in 1957, being the first man to hold such a position at a major U.S. newspaper, and kept the job until 1986. He shaped American thought for those three decades, and wrote a large number of cookbooks during his life.

Mississippi Christmas Cake


3/4 pound butter
2 cups sugar
6 eggs
4 cups flour
1 cup bourbon, brandy, or rum
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
1 cup fig preserves
6 cups raisins
8 cups chopped pecans
1 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground cloves

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Cream together the butter & sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time, and fold in flour. Combine the bourbon, corn syrup, and preserves and stir in. Add the raisins, pecans, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves and fold to blend thoroughly. Pour and scrape the batter into a buttered 4-quart tube pan and bake 2 1/2 hours, or slightly longer. Let stand until cool. Unmold.

If you REALLY want to go all out, make the fig preserves.

Fig Preserves

7 cups sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
6 cups water
8 cups ripe but firm figs (4 1/2 pounds)
2 lemons, sliced or coarsely chopped, seeds removed

In a kettle combine the sugar, lemon juice, and water. Bring to a boil and stir until sugar dissolves. If the figs are young, leave the stems intact. Add the figs to the syrup and cook 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. Add the lemons and continue cooking until the figs are almost translucent, 10-15 minutes. If the syrup becomes too thick, add a little boiling water, about 1/4 cup at a time. Remove from heat and cover. Let stand in a cool place overnight, or up to 24 hours. Pack the figs and their syrup in hot, sterilized half-pint jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Process in a boiling water bath for 30 minutes.