Carol's light fruitcake again (Was: American biscuits)

[Carol]

Sharon Hayes wrote:
>
> Carol, your fruitcake recipe sounds wonderful -- nice and light. I
haven't made a fruitcake in years but my Mum always used to soak the
fruit in real rum overnight before cooking - -toally delicious! 
Cooking takes out the alcohol content and the taste of real rum is
much better.

Carol responds:

Thank you! I've never tried soaking the fruit in rum--my teetotaler
family wouldn't appreciate it, and it might interfere with the flour
coating sticking to the fruit. But another option would be to soak the
cheesecloth wrapping in rum rather than cider. Expensive, but worth a
try if you like rum. (Or you might try some of each as an experiment
to see which worked better in your view.)

I don't think it would work to substitute rum for rum extract in the
recipe, though, because the rum extract is concentrated and the extra
liquid would mess up the proportion of liquid to flour.

Another thing--it's really important not to get any egg yolk mixed in
with the egg whites or they won't beat to a fluffy, meringuelike
texture. I'm sure that experienced bakers know that, but it's
important for the texture of the cakes to get that step right.

Carol, hoping that anyone who tries the recipe will let me know how it
comes out