Fruitcake, the dense dessert that’s soaked in a little liqueur and a fair amount of stereotypes. The sweet cake has been for the most part ridiculed in the United States as a “doorstop” that lasts so long it can be passed down from generation to generation.

But if there’s one person who might change minds and taste buds about the unique loaves, it’s Mary Andersson of Sedro-Woolley.

She’s transformed a 50-year-old family fruitcake recipe into an art form — one that produced 50 pounds of fruitcake this year.

Andersson’s two grandmothers collaborated on the original recipe, titled “Ebba’s fruitcake with variations by Ted,” in the 1950s. Andersson’s mother “took up the mantle” of fruitcake making in the ’60s, until she passed away.

“I’m still using the same pans she used all those 50 years ago,” Andersson said, motioning to an elbow-deep roasting pan surrounded by dozens of loaves on her kitchen table.

But Andersson has made her share of changes to the age-old process in the 19 years she’s been baking batches.

The 30-plus recipients of her fruitcake benevolence are the official taste-testers each year, bringing the fruitcake one ingredient closer to perfection.

The search for perfection

This year, a hunt for candied fruit without high fructose corn syrup led Andersson and her husband, Helge, to a store in Granville Island, Canada.

They drove 80 miles to the store and returned with the 18 pounds of candied fruit needed to make three batches.

Andersson stripped high fructose corn syrup from another ingredient this year by replacing maraschino cherry juice with Kirschwasser cherry brandy in the recipe. She discovered the two ingredients smelled the same while baking a black forest cake and decided to make the switch.

“You stumble across things serendipitously, and then they’re better than you expected,” said Andersson, who spends a lot of time cooking other dishes all year.

Her rhubarb pie and orange sweet rolls won first place at the Skagit County Fair this year, and her whole wheat bread earned “Best in Division.”

Her secret, she said, is adding that extra labor of love to each recipe. For the fruitcake, she devotes eight hours to removing stems from her six pounds of raisins to prevent any unwanted crunch in the cakes.

Though Andersson usually keeps her nails short for playing the organ at church, she grew them out this year to better squeeze the stems off each raisin.

“I’m really fussy about what I do,” she said, noting that her mother never would have cleaned the raisins.

When she writes out the recipe for others, she leaves this step out, figuring it’s too time-consuming for the average cook. It takes Andersson about 15 hours to mix and bake the three batches, besides all the prep work.

And the total cost for ingredients, mostly purchased from Costco, comes in at around $250.

“People have offered to pay for it, but I think of it as a gift,” she said.

Shelf life

It’s a gift she bakes every Veterans Day — a day she gets off at the Sedro-Woolley library — and asks recipients not to eat it until after Thanksgiving.

“If you let it sit, the flavors permeate each other and impart their soaked brandiness to the surrounding ingredients,” Andersson said, explaining her doctrine of fruitcake storage. “It’s like two people after several years of marriage, if it’s a good mix — which this is a good mix — they are better together than they were when they first started out.”

Not everyone agrees, she said, noting that one neighbor couldn’t resist eating the fruitcake hot out of the oven when it was delivered to her door, despite the direction to refrigerate.

Contrary to popular opinion, those cakes won’t last forever, although “between the alcohol in it and the sugar, it can survive at room temperature for quite some time,” Andersson said.

She made that discovery while cleaning out her parents’ house almost 20 years ago. They decided the 5-year-old fruitcake found in the refrigerator was no good, ground it up and put it down the garbage disposal.

The resilient cake solidified with the moisture in the pipes, making for an interesting call to the nearest plumber.

One of Andersson’s fruitcakes once lasted unrefrigerated for a month in a French post office. She’d sent the holiday gift to a former babysitter who was studying in France just before a postal worker strike began.

The babysitter ate the cake when it was finally delivered in January.

She told Andersson it was “fantastic.”

Ebba’s Fruitcake with Variationsby Ted (1950s)

1 pound seedless raisins or 1 pound seeded raisins

1 pound currants

1⁄2 pound lemon peel, candied

1⁄2 pound candied orange peel

11⁄2 pounds candied cherries

11⁄2 pounds candied pineapple

1⁄2 pound citron (could be omitted) if used, grind instead of cutting

1 pound Brazil nuts, ground up (or almonds)

2 cups shortening (I used half Nucoa, half Crisco)

4 cups flour (regular) — put the following spices in the flour and sift:

1 teaspoon soda

3 teaspoons cinnamon

3 teaspoons allspice

3⁄4 teaspoon mace

3⁄4 teaspoon nutmeg

1⁄2 teaspoon salt

1 pound dried apricots, ground and soaked all night in 1⁄2 cup apricot liquor

1 cup honey

1 pound box of brown sugar

12 eggs

1⁄2 cup juice from maraschino cherries

1⁄2 cup each of peach and apricot liquor

1 cup flour extra to dredge all fruit and nuts before adding to batter

Mary Andersson’s Grandmothers’ Fruitcake (2009)

11⁄4 pounds dried California apricots

3⁄4 cup apricot brandy

5 cups flour

11⁄3 pounds walnuts

11⁄3 pounds pecans

1 pound sliced almonds

1 pound Brazil nuts

2 pounds raisins

1 pound currants

1⁄2 pound candied lemon peel

1⁄2 pound candied orange peel

2 pounds candied pineapple

3 pounds candied cherries (half red, half green)

2 cups butter

1 pound brown sugar

12 (1 dozen) eggs, separated

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 cup honey

1⁄2 cup maraschino cherry juice or Kirschwasser (cherry brandy)

1 teaspoon soda

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon allspice

3⁄4 teaspoon mace

3⁄4 teaspoon nutmeg

1⁄2 teaspoon salt

Technique: Two to three days before making fruitcake, process apricots in food processor until they’re broken up into small pieces. Place in glass bowl, pour apricot brandy over the fruit, cover with plastic wrap and allow to soak, turning once a day to redistribute liquor. Chop nuts into coarse pieces; keep in freezer until ready to make fruitcake.

Assembly: Toast nuts in batches for 4-7 minutes at 350 degrees until fragrant. While nuts are toasting, place all 5 cups of flour into medium-sized bowl. Have another large bowl ready to dredge fruits.

As each type of nut cools, place in large “dredging” bowl and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of flour from flour bowl. Stir to coat nuts well; place floured nuts into large, deep-sided roasting pan, or the largest bowl you have. Repeat with remaining nuts. When all nuts have been added to roasting pan, mix gently by hand to distribute all nuts evenly throughout pan.

Dredge raisins in same manner as nuts, using flour as necessary (may take 2-3 tablespoons for raisins). Repeat with currants, which also will take more flour than nuts. Add both to roasting pan; mix gently but thoroughly with nuts.

Dredge lemon peel (draining away as much syrup as possible) in same manner as raisins; you will need nearly 1⁄4 cup flour for each of the lemon and the orange peels. Make sure all lemon pieces are completely cloaked in flour so that they are individually separated and do not stick in the slightest to each other. Add lemon peel to roasting pan with nuts and raisins. Repeat with orange peel. Add to roasting pan, and mix all together gently.

Dredge pineapple in same manner as peels; add to roasting pan. Repeat with cherries (easiest to dredge, so do them last); add to roasting pan. Mix all together gently but thoroughly. You will have better than 13 pounds of fruit and nuts, so it will be heavy and you must handle it gently. It can only be mixed by hand, so wash thoroughly up to your elbows.

Add all spices to flour in bowl; whisk until evenly distributed. Set aside.

In large mixing bowl (cannot be done by hand), cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks one at a time, beating after each, separating whites into clean, grease-free bowl, while mixer is running. Then add the cream of tartar. Scrape sides and continue mixing. Add vanilla, then maraschino cherry juice or Kirschwasser. Mixture may separate at this point; keep beating. Add honey while beating; mixture will smooth out. Add soaked apricots, mixing gently. Add flour/spice mixture carefully but thoroughly. Scrape bowl and make sure bottom is evenly mixed in as well.

Now carefully mix beaten egg whites into batter by hand. Batter will be significantly easier to handle as the egg whites are spread throughout. Mix thoroughly but gently.

Place raw fruitcake batter into nonstick, foil-lined loaf pans, leaving 1⁄2-inch space at top. Depending on pan size, makes approximately 7 or 8 large (8”x4”) loaves and 3 to 4 small (1 pound) loaves, which is approximately 20 pounds of fruitcake.

Bake at 225 degrees for anywhere from 1 hour and 15 minutes for the small loaves to 2 hours for the large ones. Bake until the batter appears dry and “cracked” or slightly separated from the fruit. Do not overbake — loaves will “brown” as they cool. Cool overnight, covered with paper or clean towels, on racks. Refrigerate in sealed plastic bags for up to one year. These ship well.

Be aware that this entire process takes the better part of a day and evening. You will be tired at the end of it — but it’s well worth it! Or so they tell me.

• Whitney Pipkin can be reached at 360-416-2112 or at .