Fruitcake Follies

Making a fruitcake is a long, tedious undertaking but, when someone you love also loves fruitcake, you just get on with it and do the best you can. It does help to spread the more annoying tasks over a couple days and get some friends (real and imaginary) to help. Personally, I'm not a fan and that's maybe because my mom made one that relied heavily on molasses which was easily mistaken for chocolate. It was awful. 

The saga of my relationship with this particular recipe started decades ago when I stupidly asked my Mother-in-law if there was something she would like for Christmas. Apart from getting the whole family together for a meal, she was way too practical to bother with the holidays and the only gifts she gave were in cash. So it was a big surprise when she rather apologetically confessed that she would like a fruitcake. 

It just so happened that one of the guys I worked with was selling fruitcakes to help support a local charity. So buying one from him also helped out a worthwhile cause. Luckily, HM's mom was happy with it and looked forward to receiving one every year.

Unfortunately, few things go on forever and one year the organization decided to switch to selling chocolates. That's when I found out they hadn't been selling some ordinary, grocery store fruitcake at an inflated price to raise as much money as possible, but an actual luxury brand that was very popular. By the time I started to hunt one down, it was too late and they were sold out everywhere! 

 One day my car was recalled for some potentially deadly problem and while I was waiting for it to be fixed, I came across a fruitcake recipe in an old magazine. It was very complicated and several pages long but it seemed pretty good. Plus it was the only recipe I'd found that didn't include candied citron (that rubbery, green stuff that makes you wonder if some part came off the mixer and fell into the cake by accident). So I stole the magazine from the Ford dealership and got to work. I should have just asked them if I could have it but I was running out of time. Although, if they'd built my car correctly in the first place I never would have found the recipe.

It took me three days to make the first fruitcake, peeling the oranges gave me horrible blisters but it was a huge hit. HM's parents loved it and said not to bother with the commercial one anymore, they'd rather have this one . . .  yippie? 

I supposed Ford should get some of the credit but as you might have guessed, His Madness developed a fondness for the fruitcake, too. Actually, lots of people loved it, even my Dad! So the recipe is still in use today. For the sake of preserving my sanity, the whole process is still spread out over a couple of days. No doubt a skilled baker could probably do it in much less time and I've managed to avoid the blisters thanks to OXO.

This year's cake has been thoroughly doused in cognac and will be marinating in the fridge until sometime in mid-December. Since it weighs nearly eight pounds, it may take a year to eat it up. Maybe I'll take the car in for an oil change and see if I happen upon a recipe for things to do with leftover fruitcake.

Thanks for stopping by, see you soon!