1 cup butter room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup apricot jam
1/2 cup mashed RIPE banana
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
3/4 teaspoon coconut extract
5 eggs
3 3/4 cups all purpose flour
3 cups DRIED pineapple bits (16 ounces) (see note below)
3/4 cup rum (I use pineapple juice instead of rum)
2 cups sweetened coconut
1/2 cup coconut milk
2 cups pecan halves
The day before you bake, mix the rum (or pineapple juice) and the dried pineapple bits together and microwave (or heat) until bubbles start to appear around edge of bowl. Cover tight with plastic and let it sit, at room temperature, overnight.
Put the sweetened coconut on a dry baking sheet and toast in a preheated 300° oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until JUST light golden (watch it because it likes to burn).
On day of baking, cream room temperature butter, sugars, jam, mashed banana, baking powder, salt and extract until very smooth.
Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each egg. The batter will look slightly curdled after this step, but that's OK.
Measure 3 3/4 cups of all purpose flour and set aside. Measure out 1/2 cup of coconut milk (find this in the ethnic food aisle)(shake the can really hard before you open it). Set it aside.
Add the flour, a little at a time, alternately with the coconut milk, beating on low until well mixed.
Stir in the toasted coconut and pecan halves.
Grease the loaf pans and fill half way up with batter. Decorate with maraschino cherry halves that have been patted dry (optional).
Place pans on a bigger cookie sheet and bake in PREHEATED 300° oven: 1 hour for small loaf pans (7") and 90-95 minutes for full size loaf pans.
Finished fruitcakes should be golden brown and 200° in the center.
While fruitcakes are baking, make some vanilla simple sugar syrup by bringing 1 cup water + 1 cup granulated sugar + 1 teaspoon vanilla extract to a boil. Turn the temperature down to a very slow simmer and simmer for 3 minutes, then cool completely. When fruitcakes are still warm, baste the top of the cakes.
When fruitcakes are completely cool, wrap them tightly in plastic wrap and store in a COOL dark place for 4 weeks. Open them up once a week and brush with more vanilla simple sugar, then re-wrap.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
The dried pineapple bits are a little hard to find. Do NOT use fresh or canned pineapple because there's just too much water in them. Candied pineapple might work (I haven't tried it) but you would have to cut it up so that the pieces were about the size of a large pea.