Holiday Gumdrop Cake - cooking recipe

Ingredients

9 cups raisins
6 cups all-purpose flour, divided
3 pounds gum drops (no black licorice gum drops)
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter
3 cups packed brown sugar
6 large eggs
3 cups unsweetened applesauce
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground cloves (optional)
2 teaspoons ground allspice (optional)
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 tablespoon hot water

Preparation

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Grease 2 loaf pans.
Place raisins into a large saucepan, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to medium; boil until raisins are plump, about 5 minutes. Drain and transfer to a large bowl.
Stir 1 cup flour into raisins and add gum drops and walnuts; mix to coat ingredients with flour. Beat butter, brown sugar, and eggs together in a separate bowl until creamy; mix in applesauce. Stir remaining 5 cups flour, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice into batter. Dissolve baking soda and hot water in a small bowl and stir into batter. Fold floured raisin mixture into batter. Divide batter between the prepared loaf pans.
Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, 2 1/2 hours.