Tropical Christmas Fruitcake Bites

For once, it was a very quiet day and I was feeling quite lazy.  So I pushed work aside and went into the kitchen.  Whenever I'm feeling out-of-sorts, I think of experimenting in the kitchen.  So I looked in the pantry and the fridge to see what I had... and found some leftover dried fruits... coconut, papaya, pineapple, mango.  I also had chocolate chips, mixed tropical fruit juice (that the little girl did not like) and Tanduay rum, in addition to the usual flour, sugar, butter, etc.

Then a light bulb moment!  How about fruitcake, but using tropical fruits?  (And yes, cacao is a tropical fruit so chocolate chips count!)  And no, it is not too early to make fruitcake!  (It might even be a bit late if it is for Christmas!)

Anyway, I found a recipe in my mom's files for a "white" fruitcake and used it as a guide to make my own tropical, white fruitcake.  I made a lot of changes, mainly using dried tropical fruits, mixed fruit juice (pineapple, mango and banana juice mix), tropical forest honey (instead of molasses), chocolate chips and cashews.  To hasten baking time, I scooped the batter into mini muffin cups and square muffin cups. 

Immediately after taking the fruitcake "bites" out of the oven, I poked holes all over and brushed Tanduay rum on top several times.  The smell in the kitchen was just heavenly! 

Here's a peek inside...

Basically, any recipe for pound cake would do as a base (a "full" pound cake would make 2 medium loaves), just substitute an egg with 1/4 cup pineapple or mango juice and rum, and 2 tablespoons sugar with honey.  Then fold in about a pound of mixed dried tropical fruit (about 4 cups, depending on the fruits), 6 oz chocolate chips and 6 oz chopped cashews.  A full recipe would yield about 90 to 100 pieces of fruitcake bites (mini-muffin sized).  Of course they're not really white, more like yellowish... 

Hubby, the foremost fruitcake lover, declared this experiment a success!

Yay!!!