A Once Infamous Holiday Dessert Gets the Obama Stamp of Approval With a Little Help From Rum

(Photo: Delish/YouTube)

The fruitcake has become one of the most infamous desserts for Christmas celebrations. However, a version of this cake made for the Obama family has become a holiday sensation. This may be due to the copious amounts of booze added to this fruitcake recipe with the help of aged rum.

The pastry chef for President George W. Bush, First Lady Laura Bush, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, Bill Yosses makes a version of a fruitcake called a Dundee Cake as part of a recent episode of Delish’s Presidential Eats Series. 

The Dundee Cake is a Scottish fruitcake dessert that gets its name from the marmalade makers Keillers of Dundee. Keillers would use their surplus orange peel from marmalade production to make Dundee Cakes.

Yosses learned his recipe for Dundee Cake which was used during the Obama era from a member of the White House pastry team, Margie Finneran. She learned the recipe while working at the American Embassy in England.

Yosses explains, “In old-fashioned fruitcakes, we used maraschino cherries and some of them were dried green and some red, but today, we try to avoid food coloring. 

“So, we just used natural fruits that have a lot of colors, like cranberries, candied orange peel, candied papaya, candied pineapple and then currants and raisins – both golden raisins and dark raisins – and then we splash them with a little bit of rum and press it down in there so they really soak up that rum overnight.” 

The rum used in this version is Ron Abuelo 12 year aged rum. “It has a really nice smoky, oaky flavor. You can really use any rum,” said Yosses. 

The addition of rum doesn’t just give the cake a little kick, it has other purposes as well. 

Yosses said, “It does two things. One, of course, it adds flavor to your cake, but it also softens the fruit so that it begins to absorb the liquid of the rum and makes it a much nicer texture when it goes into the cake.”

The spirit isn’t just used once in this recipe but in multiple stages. 

After the cakes are done baking they are soaked in a mixture of water, honey and, of course, more rum. In addition to flavor, the soak also helps preserve the cakes for longer.

It is easy to see why the Obamas were fans of this version of fruitcake with the addition of so much rum. With this recipe, more people might start serving this once-hated dessert to their friends and family this holiday season. 

Rum is a popular addition to many desserts such as rum cake, rum baba and bananas foster. Check out a few dessert recipes that use this spirit here.

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