Go on, send me your fruitcakes

[DaveA]

Fruitcake has such a bad name they call it teacake now to hide it's stealth constituency.

If your aged Auntie still sends you her old family recipe fruitcake and you ceremoniously sneer and dump it, stop right there. Send it to me. Please. lol

Happy Christmas!

Thanks in advance!

DaveA

Ill trade some leftover Niman ranch Ham from XmasEve at my motherinlaw's...

[andiesenji]

I like fruitcake, at least most kinds, and have never figured why so many people have such an antipathy to it.

I think it may be with the way it is served. Saturday I went to an afternoon tea and there were thick slabs of fruitcake cut the way one would cut regular cake. I couldn't eat it like that either.

We always had fruited cakes of various types around all year when I was a child, usually put out for tea, sometimes in the evening, again with tea (and coffee).

It was always sliced very thin, as these dense, mature cakes hold together when sliced less than a 1/4 inch thick. Sometimes they were spread with butter or clotted cream.

In my opinion, they taste different and have a different mouth-feel when served this way. A little goes a long way and if people would try them served properly, I believe they would find they might like them.

Also, there are many varieties and not all "fruitcakes" should be lumped under the same category. If one is not even willing to try, they might never know what they are missing.

A friend of mine visited the UK a year or so ago and "discovered" several cakes that she liked very much. When she came home and was showing pictures and describing them, I told her that these were actually different types of fruitcakes. So, rather than protest that she didn't like fruitcakes, she did try some, cut very thin, as she had in England and found some that she liked.

[BarbaraY]

I like fruitcake, at least most kinds, and have never figured why so many people have such an antipathy to it.

I think it may be with the way it is served.  Saturday I went to an afternoon tea and there were thick slabs of fruitcake cut the way one would cut regular cake.  I couldn't eat it like that either.

We always had fruited cakes of various types around all year when I was a child, usually put out for tea, sometimes in the evening, again with tea (and coffee).

It was always sliced very thin, as these dense, mature cakes hold together when sliced less than a 1/4 inch thick.  Sometimes they were spread with butter or clotted cream. 

In my opinion, they taste different and have a different mouth-feel when served this way.  A little goes a long way and if people would try them served properly, I believe they would find they might like them.

Also, there are many varieties and not all "fruitcakes" should be lumped under the same category.  If one is not even willing to try, they might never know what they are missing.

A friend of mine visited the UK a year or so ago and "discovered" several cakes that she liked very much.  When she came home and was showing pictures and describing them, I told her that these were actually different types of fruitcakes.  So, rather than protest that she didn't like fruitcakes, she did try some, cut very thin, as she had in England and found some that she liked.

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I agree. A thinly sliced piece of fruitcake is truly lovely. I didn't make any this year and I miss it.

I think too many people first experienced the dry, crumbly ones from the grocery stores and think that's what fruitcake is all about. Or they have been brainwashed by all the jokes and articles about fruitcake.

[Tepee]

If your aged Auntie still sends you her old family recipe fruitcake and you ceremoniously sneer and dump it, stop right there. Send it to me. Please. lol

Happy Christmas!

Thanks in advance!

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*Wildly waving hands* Me! Me! I LOVE moist fruitcake, most versions...traditional fruit cake, fruit cake made with figs and whisky, fruit cake with chocolate/coffee in them. My favoritest, is my family's fruit cake, which has semolina in it. Yum! I know people who'd fight tooth and nail for a piece of this....yes, all cut into tiny pieces. Since a lot of homes serve fruit cake for christmas, we skip serving it till chinese new year which comes around the corner. Confession: I hoard this in a secret corner in the fridge and savour them as and when I hear it calling me.... *hic!*

Edited December 21, 2005 by Tepee (log)

[loiosh]

I think another reason people don't like fruitcake is that it's often made with too many preservative-y, red and green glace cherries and citron bits and stuff.

My partner made two generous loaves of Christmas cake yesterday. The recipe, from Cuisine magazine (New Zealand), includes dried figs, currants, sultanas, pawpaw (we substituted some dried mango), and a tin of pineapple. It's dense but moist, and has a clean, fruity taste. Much less stodgy than the usual. (Also try Alton Brown's recipe on the Food Network site.)

We sometimes cover these cakes with marzipan, like the fruitcakes traditionally served at weddings here in Australia.

Does anyone else remember Truman Capote's story about making fruitcake?

[Zeemanb]

(Also try Alton Brown's recipe on the Food Network site.)

I baked my first fruitcake over the weekend and did indeed use Alton Brown's recipe. This was the first time I recall ever seeking out so much dried fruit, and I was amazed at the variety at my neighborhood supermarket.

I look forward to slicing into that loaf on Christmas, although I do wish I could have let it age longer than a week. The real test will be finding out whether or not the family forgives me for making fruitcake in lieu of my usual bourbon and chocolate pecan pie.

[miladyinsanity]

Since a lot of  homes serve fruit cake for christmas, we skip serving it till chinese new year which comes around the corner. Confession: I hoard this in a secret corner in the fridge and savour them as and when I hear it calling me.... *hic!*

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We do this too, Tepee, but mostly because we don't celebrate Christmas.

[DaveA]

okay, so I guess no ones sending me a nice homemade fruitcake. Instead my wifey bought one from Fauchon, a nice dry-ish but delicious teacake style one; a Dancing Deer nut cake good texture and flavor but also on the dry side; a Mrs Peeks english pudding which was good texturally and wet, but a bit too sweet. Also on the table was a 9" cake from the fabulous Cupcake Cafe whcih make a fantastic walnut flour white cake with not too sweet buttercream frosting.

I saw, and laughed at, a $42 white fruitcake at Dean&deluca. Pretty wrpping, but 42 bux?!

[Rebecca263]

There isn't a fruitcake, tea cake or Christmas cake alive that I won't eat. Slice it thick or thin, spread it with an accompaniment or not, luridly colored fruit, alcohol, no alcohol, white, dark, nutty, dry, I don't care, I've never tasted a bad one. So, DaveA's got a wife who got him his, I'm all by myself. Send ME your fruitcake excess!