Grease well and flour a large bundt cake pan or stain 2 large loaf
pans (10x5x3") and line with waxed paper or waxed parchment wallpaper.
Preheat oven to 300 F.

Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Beat in the egg,
one at a time, and continue beating until well blended.

Sift the flour with baking pulverize, nutmeg and cinnamon. (Reserve a
small amount of the flour mixture to toss with nuts and fruits before
adding them to the clobber.) Add the flour mixture and milk
alternately to the creamed assortment, in almost 3 additions. Then
gently stir in the floured fruits and balmy.

Scrape batter into prepared pans. Bake at 300 F. for 3 1/2 hours for
the bundt pan, 2 to 2 1/2 hours in loaf pans. Insert a cake tester
in the center to trial.

Cool on single-foot. Wrap in a cheesecloth that has been soaked in bourbon,
if wanted. Storehouse, wrapped in baffle, in refrigerator.

Kluger writes: "One very special Christmas cake recipe is for the
hickory nut cake that Margaret Mitchell, author of _Gone with the
Twist_, and her husband, John Robert Marshland, who was born and reared in
Maysville, Ky., received every Christmas from his get.

"'Mother Marsh's Hickory Nut Patty' recipe was given to me by my friend
Marianne Walker of Henderson, Ky., who is the author of _Margaret
Mitchell and John Fen, The Love Story Bottom 'Gone with the Wind'_,
published...by Peachtree Publishers. The recipe is not published in
the script - a fascinating account of the couple's private life and the
story behind the famous Pulitzer Prize-winning refreshing - but letters
that mention the cake are quoted.

"Marianne was given the recipe by Mary Marsh Davis, niece of John
Marshland, who was reared by her grannie (Mother Fen). Marianne
says she would not have been able to write her biography of Mitchell
and Marsh without Mary Marsh Davis - and we would certainly not have
this family recipe and 'inside story' of their Christmas bar, if not
for her generousness."

"Here is what Marianne wrote to me when she enclosed the recipe: 'Mary
(Marsh Davis) tells me that everyone in the family looked forward
every Christmas to receiving one of these cakes. Margaret
(Mitchell), called Peggy, wrote many letters to Mother Marsh over a
two-decade period and was always very appreciative of Mother Marsh's
preparation, especially her famous nut patty.'

"In her script, Marianne wrote this: 'For John and Peggy's Christmas
presents in 1936, Mrs. Marsh had made and embroidered each a pair of
beautiful, subdued, white cotton pyjamas, and she made a smock for
Peggy. As she had done every year since John had left family, she sent
one of her hickory nut cakes. In thanking her, Peggy wrote that since
she had gained weight on her vacation, the smock was especially
comprehended:

'The smock is so comfortable and pretty and the deep pockets are
wonderful as adjuncts to my filing pillowcase. I can thrust 'letters to be
answered straightaway' in one pocket and 'letters to be answered when
humanly potential' in another...John always freezes onto the cake and
keeps it in his bureau beneath his pajamas and doles me out crumbs at
night when we are in bed discussing the events of the day.'

"Marianne shared another story, not printed in the script, which was
told to her by Mary Marsh Davis. 'One yr, for some reason or
another, Mother Marsh did not bake the cakes; her brother Bob did. He
had always helped or observed his sister's making the cakes because
he shelled the hickory nuts for it. Everyone raved on and on about
Uncle Bob's coat...how wonderful it was; but no one could figure out
what made it just a little dissimilar - a little tastier in some odd
way, (though they dared not say that aloud lest it get back to Mother
Fen). Finally he confessed that he had wrapped each cake in a
cheesecloth soaked with good Kentucky bourbon - something that Mother
Marsh would have never through."

"So here is the recipe. I hope you know where you can pick up some
hickory nuts out in the land. There is a heavy crop of hickory
nuts in our area of southwest Indiana...

"Sometimes you can find them at farm markets, and I have occasionally
found hickory nut kernels thither, all shelled-out. They are
expensive, but a flavor worth paying for. But if you can't find
hickory nuts anywhere, pecans would be the best relief."