Grind all the spices in a petal and mortar or any other method you prefer. Using whole spices and grinding just prior to making the fruitcake makes a difference.
Use dried fruit instead of candied fruit.
Toast the nuts in a 3 degree F oven for an hour. Toasting the nuts brings out much more flavour.
Combine fruit, candied ginger and the orange, lemon, lime zest in a large non-reactive bowl. (eg. glass or plastic) Add rum and macerate (marinate) overnight. To speed things up you can microwave for 5 minutes to speed the process.
Place the fruit/rum mixture in a non-reactive pot. Add the suger, butter, apple cider, and all spices. Bring to a boil, stirring often and simmer for 5 or 1 minutes. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
Heat oven to 325 degrees F.
Combine the remaining dry ingredients and sift into the fruit mixture.
Using a large wooden spoon mix together quickly. Then stir in eggs one at a time until completly incorporated, then fold in the nuts.
Place the mixture into a 1 inch non-stick loaf pan and bake for 1 hour. Check for doneness with a toothpick in the middle of the cake, if it comes out clean it's done. If it's not done bake for another 1-15 minutes and check again. I find mine usually take a good 1 1/2 hours.
Remove cake from oven and place on a cooling rack. Spitz the top with brandy in a spay bottle (or baste) and allow to cool. Let the cake cool completely before taking it out of the pan.
Once the cake is completely cool, seal in a tight sealing food safe storage container. Check the cake every few days. If it's dry, spritz with more brandy.
The spritzing with brandy is to help prevent the cake from cracking by preventing the surface from drying out.
The cake's flavour will be considerably enhanced by aging over the next two weeks
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