Categories: Candies, Christmas, Holiday, Cakes 
      Yield: 40 servings 
  
  4 1/2 c  Flour 
      2 ts Baking powder 
      1 ts Baking soda 
      1 ts Salt 
      3 c  Pears, dried, chopped 
      2 c  Pecans, chopped 
      1 c  Butter 
      3 c  Sugar 
      4    Eggs 
      2 ts Vanilla 
      2 c  Buttermilk 
  
  Preheat oven to 400; grease and flour 4 loaf pans. Separate eggs. Mix 
  flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add pears and pecans; stir 
  again.  Set aside. In large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add egg yolks, 
  one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and beat 
  again.  Alternately add dry ingredients and buttermilk, blending well after 
  each addition. 
   
  With clean dry beaters, beat egg whites until they stand in firm, glossy, 
  moist peaks.  Fold 1/3 egg whites into batter to lighten it, then fold in 
  remaining whites.  Fill each pan 2/3 of batter. 
   
  Reduce oven heat to 350.  Bake 65 minutes, until tester inserted in center 
  of each cake comes out clean. Ten minutes before cakes are done, rotate 
  pans back to front to cakes on each rack brown evenly. Let cakes cool five 
  minutes on wire racks, then turn out and finish cooling right side up on 
  wire racks. 
   
  Before serving, decorate top of fruitcakes with whole nuts and mixed 
  candied fruit peel. 
   
  Source: _The Christmas Kitchen_ by Lorraine Bodger, sent by Nina Wichman 
  (WYF.4.LYF) to Sylvia Steiger (THE.STEIGERS on GEnie, 71511,2253 on CI$) 
  for the October 1992 cookbook swap