Fruit Cake Recipe

I used to make several fruit cakes each year but the children don't care that much for it and the grandchildren won't even try it so I was looking for a recipe that made one not too large cake. I found a recipe that I thought would do and tried it last week. It was delicious ( only half made it to the freezer! That's how delicious it tasted).  Now I want to make it again making a few more changes. The first recipe I made using chopped Brazil nuts and dark chocolate. This time I intend to use hazelnuts and my DH has requested less chocolate ( actually he wants NO chocolate but since I'm making it as much for myself it will have chocolate but I'll use milk chocolate instead).  It makes one loaf pan sized cake.

               CHOCOLATE-NUT FRUITCAKE

2 cups candied fruit or cherries or any combination thereof ( could use chopped dried apricots too)
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chocolate   either choc. chips or chopped semi-sweet (or dark)
6 Tbsp butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1/4 cup either orange juice or rum or whatever you want ( that's the way my recipes go!)
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups chopped nuts of your choice
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 300 degrees
Lightly coat a 9X5 loaf pan with cooking spray then line the bottom with parchment.
( I cut my parchment long enough to stick out the sides to make it easier to remove when done.)

In a bowl combine fruit, nuts raisins, and chocolate and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl beat the butter and both sugars until nice and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time beating just enough to combine. Stir in orange juice or whatever liquid you're using.
Add dry ingredients and stir well then last add the fruit/nuts that you set aside earlier.
Spoon into prepared pan and bake about 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Depending on your oven it might take longer. Cool in pan for 10 minutes then tip it out and cool completely on a rack.  

If you try this recipe be sure to tell me if you were happy with the results and if you make changes that improved it, well, I'd love to hear about them. I really like no-fail type recipes that I can tinker with and yet have them turn out.

            GRANNY MARIGOLD