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Cake - The type of cake that you choose is the base of the fruitcake. Usually cakes with simple flavors are best for fruitcake like a plain white cake, a pound cake, or a vanilla cake. But if you want to challenge yourself and you want to have a unique fruitcake you can choose a spice cake as a base, such as the cake that is commonly used as a base for carrot cake. Chocolate cake, ginger cake, angel food and other types of cakes are all fine to use for fruitcake. Just choose the type of cake that you like the best.

 

Fruits and nuts - The fruits and nuts that go into a fruitcake should always be the fruits and nuts you like, or that your friends and family like if you're making the cake for them. Most people dislike fruitcake because they dislike the taste of citron, which is a standard ingredient in fruitcakes. Citron is candied lemon and orange peels and can be very bitter. So if you want you can skip the citron and substitute your own favorite fruits and nuts. Cherries, figs, dates, raisins, almonds, cashews are all good choices if you want to keep your recipe traditional. If you want to use exotic ingredients try using apricots. pomegranate seeds, hazelnuts and other uncommon ingredients.  You can use dried fruit or candied fruit, whichever you prefer. 

 

Alcohol or juice - Most fruitcakes are made with alcohol, but if you don't drink alcohol of if you're making the cake so that kids will be able to eat it you can substitute fruit juice for alcohol. Pick a fruit juice flavor that complements the flavor of the fruit, like pomegranate juice, cranberry juice, or apple juice. If you're going to use alcohol pick any alcohol that appeals to you. The most commonly used alcohol in fruitcakes is rum, but you can also use whisky, brandy, rum, cognac, or any other liquor that appeals to you.