Ancient Egyptian & Biblical holiday fruitcake recipe with flaxseed meal

Archaeologists report that fruitcake is real old-fashioned, Biblical, and pre-Biblical, dating back to ancient Egypt and Sumeria. Fruitcake has been introduced by the diverse population living in ancient Egypt 4,000 years ago. The four main ingredients in ancient Egyptian/Levantine/Sumerian fruitcake are the following ingredients for the recipe: pomegranate seeds, raisins, pine nuts (pignola nuts) and barley.

Try out this recipe for your holiday celebration. It fits well with Xmas, as it probably had been eaten in that area of the world, or Hannukah, probably eaten in that area also. It's pan-Levantine-Egyptian-Sumerian-Mediterranean because the same ingredients grow on all sides of that sea.

The first trick is to figure out how to soften the pomengranate seeds--either by soaking or cooking--before they go into the cake so you won't break your teeth biting into the cake. Will the heat of the baking process soften the seeds? Or should they first be soaked in water until they're soft? And is all that woody pulp going to tear up your gut?

Maybe you should stick with pomegranate juice or concentrate and then add nuts and dried fruit. The pine nuts/pignola nuts will mix well with the barley and/or barley flour. Just don't make the cake too moist.

Barley flour will dry the batter, absorbing some of the moisture, but cooked barley will keep the batter wet in the center. That's where dried fruit, nuts, and bran can come in to absorb some of the moisture without making the cake too dry.

Start with a cup of pomegranate seeds, golden raisins, pine nuts also known as pignola nuts (native to the Levant and Egypt) and barley. The trick is to find a way to soften the woody pomegranate seeds so they don't break your teeth when you bite into the cake.

Instead of the hard pomegranate seeds baked in a soft fruit cake, in modern times, to be on the safe side, use pomegranate juice or juice concentrate. That way you'll take away the danger of someone breaking a tooth on a woody pomegranate seed. But be aware in ancient Egypt, fruit cake had only four ingredients--pomegranate seeds, raisins, pine nuts, and barley.

To make the batter for the cake mix the following ingredients:

1 c. olive or grape seed oil
1 c. creamy, organic, raw unfiltered honey, orange blossom or clover honey lends a fragrant scent

1/2 cup orange blossom or rose petal extract water (from any Middle Eastern grocery or deli).
4 eggs
2 c. barley or garbanzo bean flour or mix barley and garbanzo bean flour with 1/3 cup flax seed meal. Or instead of flour you can mix oat bran, flaxseed meal, and raw wheat germ in equal amounts and use as is or mix with an equal amount of barley or garbanzo bean flour.
1 tsp. baking powder (Use the type of baking powder that is not made/processed with aluminum.)
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 c. pomegranate juice or concentrate
1 c. more flour
2 1/2 c. white raisins
2 c. cut up dates
2 c. mixed dried fruit such as dried figs, nectarines, prunes, or berries
1 c. pine nuts, pistachios, cashews, walnuts, or any combination of nuts, in medium-sized pieces.

Heat oven to 275 degrees. Line 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pan with heavy parchment or wrapping paper. Mix olive or grapeseed oil, honey, eggs and dried fruit pieces. Beat with mixer 2 minutes. Sift 2 cups bean or barley flour, flaxseed meal, baking powder, and salt together and stir into oil.

Mix with pomegranate juice. Mix 1 cup flour into fruit and nuts. Pour batter over fruit; mix well. You can also add grated vegetables such as carrot or zucchini (optional) if desired, about a 1/2 cup, if you like the moister taste of grated vegetables in your cake.

Pour into prepared pan. Bake 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Let stand 15 minutes before removing from pans. Do not remove paper. Wrap in foil. Store in cool place. Can be brushed with sweet cherry wine two or three times before serving.

Optional: Instead of all flour you can substitute a mixture of oat bran, rice bran, flaxseed meal in equal amounts with barley or bean flours. Rice bran will give a slightly bitter taste, though. But oat bran and flax seed meal will produce a more ancient-themed cake, linking back to a time when flour was ground to the consistency of meal.

Another option is to mix raw wheat germ, oat bran, and flax seed meal in equal amounts and use instead of flour or mix with the barley or garbanzo bean flour to bake a fruit cake with healthier ingredients--meal, instead of flour and raw wheat germ instead of the more highly-processed flour.

What about the usual fruitcake you get in the mail from friends or relatives? How many calories are in that modern fruitcake?

If you eat once slice of fruitcake, it might have 139 calories, but 34 of those calories usually come from fat. American-style fruitcake--the type you see at those fund-raising bake sales at holiday time, is a product of the Southeastern states. Claxton, Georgia advertises the town as "Fruitcake Capital of the World," according to the article, "Nutrition Quiz," by Sam McManis, Sacramento Bee, December 6, 2009. Also see the site, "Claxton, GA - Fruitcake Capital of the World."

Claxton is known as the "Fruitcake Capital of the World," a claim also made by Corsicana, Texas, according to the site, Claxton, GA - Fruitcake Capital of the World. The Claxton Fruitcake Co. used to offer free tours of their bakery, but insurance concerns ended that. You can still look in the front windows of the production area at seven huge fruitcake ovens in action. Claxton Fruit Cake was the only fruit cake exhibited at the New York World's Fair in 1964-6.

Where to find nutrition information on fruitcakes

Nutrition Data

Food Reference

What's Cooking America