Gumdrop Cake

This is a recipe of Darren's grandmother's, and one of Darren's favorites. Always a risky undertaking for a wife, to attempt to reproduce a matriarchal specialty; but I tried it anyway. Success!

Gumdrop Cake

1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine
2 eggs
1 cup milk
2 3/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon extract
1/2 tsp almond extract

1 lb. gumdrops (cut in half or third -- do not use purple or black, as they discolor the cake)

1 cup golden raisins (which I forgot to put in)

1/2 cup red & green cherries (which we couldn't find, as they're seasonal, so we used dried cherries instead)

2 dried pineapple rings or fruit of your choice (we couldn't find rings, so used a package of dried chunks. It was a small package; can't remember the exact size.)


Cream butter and sugar well. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat after each addition. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to creamed mixture, alternating with milk (flour first, then milk, in small amounts, mixing after each addition. End with flour.) Add extracts. Flour fruit (in small amounts, so it doesn't fall to bottom of cake) and add to batter. Add gumdrops.

Bake in a greased square or tube pan at 325 degrees for 1 1/4 hours, till done.

Note from Darren's grandmother: She -- and so I did, too -- bakes it at 300 for about an hour to see how it's coming along, then raises the temperature if it's not getting done. I baked it longer than I expected, but it came out nicely done. Take it out of the pan once it's cool enough, or it'll stick horribly.

-- SJ