"In response to mariel1951_3375221's post below, there is mention of placing water in the oven if you watch the video portion of this recipe. The video just says to have a pan of water placed on a lower shelf in the oven to prevent the fruitcake from cracking while baking for the longer time period (1 hour).

"I cannot find my old recipe from the first time Alton made this fruitcake on TV and I missed the show last week-end. Does anyone know what Alton said about placing water in the oven while cooking the fruitcake? I believe the old recipe had the info but this one doesn't. Love this fruitcake though and getting ready to make some for gifts. Thanks."