OT I'm Lonely!!

"Donna" ,in rec.crafts.textiles.needleworkwrote: and entertained us with

People who bash it must never have tasted a beautifully made one I guess. There has been a kind of 'resurrection' of fruit cake in NS. Our local CBC morning show had the host asking for a good old fashioned fruit cake and they were inundated with fruit cakes.

It was terrible listening to them day after day describing what they looked like, how they tasted etc. Bummer lol

When I was at the deli counter the other day, I noticed they were selling small, individual servings in a box. I wish I could remember what they called it, but it wasn't fruitcake - obviously a marketing ploy!

LOL - maybe I could make some and symbolically send them to the SILs??? Good fruitcake - is nice - not the stale, awful, too sweet or used as bricks kind. So - are you baking?????

ellice

I think it must be the upbringing. I have always liked fruitcake, and ESPECIALLY my grandmother's cake. She never cooked them right, and the middle sank. That was my favorite part!!

I remember the annual November cooking sessions, when we would make the Christmas puddings, and the Christmas cake! I was always given the task of taking the skins off the almonds, and the water became cold before I was done, and I just hated doing it LOL. I remember about 20 years ago we were going to spend Xmas in Florida with JIm's mother. I thought I would wow everyone with my English Christmas cake. So, I baked the cake well in advance, marinated it regularly, and once in Florida I put on the marzipan and the Royal Icing. It looked lovely for an hour or so, and then I noticed all the marzipan and icing sliding down off the cake, like an avalanche!!! The old gal didn't have air-conditioning, so it was just too darned warm for the cake........at about 80 degs!

That was the last fruit cake I ever made!

Gillian

You poor baby. As though celebrating Christmas with the Florida relative, and the palm trees, and the hot weather wasn't bad enough, it must have been dreadful to have your lovely cake fall in a heap.

Lucille

So true!!! I am amazed I am still here....with packages mailed, tree lit up and pretty, and wearing shorts!!Ugh! I WANT SNOW!!!!

Gillian

Rich fruit cake and a slice of Wensleydale cheese - heaven!

That's an idea. I have a large hunk of Wensleydale with cranberries - the Costco had it of all places. This one gets a lot of specialty stuff in during the holiday season. We haven't broken into it yet - but it's coming...

ellice

I remember that when Jill and I made Christmas cake, there was lots of fruit, and not much cake. The secret was cooking the cakes *very* slowly. The mixture was put into containers lined with brown paper, and on the outside, corrugated cardboard insulation. Small cakes took 2+ hours to cook, and large ones, 4+ hours. One tested whether the cake was cooked, by putting in a clean metal knitting needle, and see if it came out clean.

There are good fruit cakes out there, just not many of them! C

My joke was an old one I just have to put out there whenever someone mentions fruitcake.

In real life -- I've never even had any that I can remember. I don't like several things I saw in the recipe, so I have no desire to go out of my way to try any either.

But I could make myself eat some and be polite if it were served at someone's home. There are very few things i couldn't do that with.

How about a survey.

How many of you out there actually like fruitcake and how many of you are like me and think of it as ick, ack ptui?

Lucille

As I recently asked in another group, "define fruitcake".

I use the same candied fruits in a bread dough, and love that. I don't like the brick-like substance that's sold in stores as fruitcake.

Friends had received a homemade fruitcake from someone who makes her own candied fruit to put in it. I took one bite, decided the soggy cake part was not for me, and munched on only the candied fruit portion, which was pretty good.

A "proper" rich fruit cake - what I term a "Christmass Cake" - is delicious BUT it should be made at least 6 months before consumption and the fruit MUST be soaked in brandy for a few days before you even think about making the cake. This is a cake that takes time to make and it's most definitely NOT "fast food"

Bruce,

As an-ex Brit, you have to realize that a fruitcake here is as different from those in UK as real beer is! I am sure store bought fruit cake in M&S is not like the ones we knew. Similarly Americam "lager" has no relationship to US lager.........except when you put a piece of lime with it. Then it is Mexican etc.

Gillian Florida (originally Surrey/Middlesex).

How about it depends? I don't like the ones that are basically pound cake with dried fruit and fake rum flavoring. But I do like certain dark and fruity ones. A lot depends on the fruit mix too!

Same here !!!

I love a *GOOD* fruitcake, not the kind that is bad poundcake with a

I mean, the name is FRUIT Cake,, not Cake with some fruit in it...

(Rant mode on) how would you like to buy Mac & Cheese and find about 1/4 cup of macaroni pieces and 6 cups of cheese? (Rant off)

If any of you get one of those mythical 30 fruitcakes - send it to me!! I'll hide it from everyone... hehehehe

Katheryne

my husband's former landlady, who totally loved him and spoiled him rotten, made him/us a fruitcake every year - a light one not the dark kind, and it was so delicious, it was unbelievable. She'd given me the recipe but on one of our moves around the country, it got misplaced somehow. She has passed away now so I'll never get that recipe again. But dear Roberta, wherever you are, how we enjoyed that special fruitcake you treated us with every year.

Sharon (N.B.)

In news:U_WdnZBVCZIv7RXYnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@adelphia.com, Lucille purred:

I'm not much for "spicey" cakes - fruit cakes included. *But* I used to help my mom make them when I was a kid (would pick the cherries out of the candied fruit before she put them in the mix, and she's smack my hand :D).

Mom likes fruitcakes - but not the store-bought ones (which are the ones that will someday be used to rebuild NYC Library).