mr daniel's dastardly fruitcake

I have never liked traditional Christmas Fruitcake *eckkk* and I have always liked Mr Daniel's *BIG grin* What can I say? I use a cake mix (big no-no in my family : P but works for me ) because my sloth outweighs my greed. One cake - TWO deadly sins *evil laughter* The recipe looks long but it is very easy. This cake is not for you if you prefer light, airy gateaux. It's dark, damp, decadent and will make you fail a breathaliser test *THUD*

Prep : 15 mins
Cook : 80 mins
Serves : 16

Ingredients

1 box Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge instant cake mix
1 can pitted dark cherries - very thoroughly drained and halved
1 bottle Jack Daniel's - you might not need it all ... probably .... maybe, oh well, it IS Christmas *shrug*
3 eggs
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1 cup oil OR melted butter
1 cup whole sour cream
1 cup cherry soaking liquid (see below)
1/2 of a tsp double acting baking powder
1 level tsp ground cinnamon
1 level tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp vanilla extract

~~~~~~~~~~ CHOCOLATE GLAZE INGREDIENTS ~~~~~~~~~~

300 gm 50% dark chocolate
4 scant tbs butter
1/2 of a cup hot coffee

Directions

Day before : Put drained and halved cherries in a small bowl and cover completely with bourbon (Jack Daniel's). Cover and leave to soak for 24 hours.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and line a 10 inch round cake tin.

Renove cherries from soaking liquid. Set aside liquid for later use. You should have approx 1 cup.

Whisk eggs and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Add oil OR butter, sour cream, soaking liquid, cake mix baking powder and spices. Mix thoroughly with whisk.

Fold in chocolate chips and cherries then pour batter into pan and bake for 30 minutes before turning temperature to 165 degrees. Continue baking for another 50 minutes or until skewer inserted in the middle comes out more or less clean and cake starts to pull away from side of pan. Remove from oven and cool in pan.

When cold, pour one teacup of bourbon evenly all over cake. Cover and keep. The next day pour 3/4 of a cup bourbon evenly all over cake. Cover and keep. On the third day, pour 1/2 of cup bourbon evenly all over cake. Cover and keep.

The next day, place the dark chocolate and butter in a bowl and microwave on medium for 2 minutes. Remove, stir and microwave another 2 minutes on medium. Stir till completely melted and combined. Pour in hot coffee and whisk till smooth. Cool till comfortably warm but still liquid and pourable.

Invert cake out of pan and onto a cooling rack with a catching tray underneath. Pour melted chocolate over cake all at once. Gently shake cake from side to side to help chocolate spread evenly. If you've followed the amounts and instructions faithfully, it should spread and level out by itself but if it doesn't use spatula to spread and cover top and sides of cake before glaze thickens. Allow glaze to set before cutting.