RANT: I love love love Fruitcake!!!

12/24/2010 | Me

[freedumb2003]

OK, I have had it with the jokes about fruitcake.

I LOVE fruitcake and, to be frank with all, I have not had a really good one for YEARS, and I blame all the anti-fruitcake jokes for all this time.

I can't even find the good old dark, dense, fruited-candy, nutted (pecans at front), rum/brandy soaked fruitcake that I loved so much 20 or 30 years ago. The ones that had cheesecloth over them to keep the dampness (and booze) in. Real fruitcake is more macho than Chuck Norris in a Bruce Willis film!

Not to worry about "regifting" them -- those of you who know of what I speak know that even close family were close indeed if we would "share" them!!

The only person who ever was allowed to make fruitcake jokes was Johnny Carson -- because he was Johnny Carson.

But I am serious -- the "Political Correctness" of food has ruined the fruitcake: which used to be the centerpiece of the yuletide.

I would give my best figgy pudding for a real fruitcake! I am searching for a fruitcake of gold! And I am gettin' old.

[Roses0508]

My mother made them every year and I loved them. She based hers on applesauce cake and added the fruits and nuts. Soaked them in grape juice since the household had no alcoholic beverages. I wonder if my sister has the recipe?

[Monterrosa-24]

I think the making of fruitcakes was best immortalized by Capote's CHRISTMAS MEMORY. The collecting of pecans and the buying of the expensive ingredients like canned pineapple in the depression was just perfect. And to top it off there was that great episode where they bought the hard liquor from Mr. Haha so that it would be real fruitcake. The Geraldine Page version of the short story was simply well-done. I know bringing up Capote and fruitcake in the same sentence makes for easy jokes but he really could write some prose. He did have a very different upbringing even remembering an affair between his mother and Jack Dempsey. Capote's drug use, homosexuality, and weight gain all combined for his shortened life span.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I love it too.
This is the stuff I love best. You're right. It is getting harder to find the good stuff.

[ModelBreaker]

“Tell her that, even she is in a really bad mood, it is her American duty to suck it up and laugh (yeah, that’ll work!).”

I’ll try that sometime. I’ll let you know how it goes. :)

[VampireStateNY]

That sounds really good! I usually only soak mine for a month - now I feel like a lightweight. :)

[Conan the Librarian]

Claxton Fruit Cake
http://www.claxtonfruitcake.com/

or

Georgia Fruit Cake
http://www.georgiafruitcakecompany.com/default.aspx

They are both made in Claxton, Ga. about a mile apart.

My sister likes the Georgia, I prefer the Claxton.

Either are better than anything else you can get.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=203+west+main,+claxton,+ga&daddr=S+Duval+St,+Claxton,+Evans,+Georgia+30417&hl=en&geocode=FRe-6gEdPyoe-ykbpmnc4WD6iDEVwGJU0nt_ag%3BFVyg6gEdyz4e-ynzcxWs5GD6iDE0b_5bZlYpOA&mra=pd&mrcr=0&sll=32.156213,-81.90402&sspn=0.023543,0.032401&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=16

[martin_fierro]

I ♥ inflatable fruitcake.

[dfwgator]

The fact is there is only one fruitcake, and it keeps getting sent on to somebody else each Christmas.

[Lacey]

Collin Street Bakery is good but here’s another Texas treasure that I think is even better:

http://www.eilenbergerbakery.com

[MinuteGal]

My immigrant grandpa had a German bakery in Illinois for 30 years. I was raised in the culture of the finest in baked goods.

In those days (and unlike most of today's bakery products) it was good things in, good things out.....real butter, real eggs, real whipped cream.....ah, the vanished gastronomic memories, sigh.

During the holidays, I love a slice or two of quality fruit cake with cold milk or hot coffee. I've searched many years for a fruit cake that satisfies my Morris-the-Cat finicky pastry taste buds.

Claxton and the others are so-so, in my opinion....but when Marshall Fields became Macy's in the Chicago area, I discovered Macy's own brand dark fruit cake, individually-wrapped slices.....rich, delicious, pricey, but worth the once-a-year cost to the fruit cake connoisseur.

After Christmas, if they have some left, they go on sale at a good price, and I swoop some up for the freezer so I can prolong my pleasure for some months to come.

Leni

[fightinJAG]

The problem with the fruitcake of the last decade or so is that neither the fruit nor the cake is up to par. The fruit in a real fruit cake is deliciously to eat all by itself (though the booze can be strong, which is all good) and the cake should also be something you’d find incredible on its own.

If the recipe doesn’t reach these two standards — fruit delicious on its own and cake likewise — you are going to end up with a fruitcake joke!

[FourPeas]

Auntie E is that YOU? How's the hip doin' darlin'?

[FourPeas]

Great find!

[VampireStateNY]

The year my husband was in Iraq, I made two and sent him one...triple-wrapped and tucked into a t-shirt lest someone smell the contents and flag it as “contraband”. He said he never enjoyed a fruitcake as much as he enjoyed that one - now I make them every year!

[The_Reader_David]

There are lots of recipes for steamed puddings online (cooks.com and epicurious.com, and closer to Christmas, I suspect the “home” sections of every British newspaper’s website will have one or two).

I don’t have a soft-copy of my favorite (a cranberry steamed pudding from the Gourmet Cookbook).

None of the recipes are that hard: it’s basically a cake batter with fruit and nuts folded in.

The main problem is that one needs either a pudding mold (we have one) or a deep heat-proof bowl, plus waxed paper and kitchen string, and a pot big enough to put the mold or bowl inside and close with a lid. This equipment need makes it rather hard to do under road warrior conditions (unless maybe you stay at really high-end suite hotels and they’ve got better kitchenwares than anywhere I’ve ever stayed).

[trisham]

In a thread a few years ago, various FReepers recommended these sites:

http://www.beatricebakery.com/products/fndc.asp

http://www.claxtonfruitcake.com/

http://www.collinstreet.com/pages/deluxe_fruitcake

[Conan the Librarian]

Whoo hooo! Claxton gets another vote.

[texmexis best]

I heart this thread!

I once worked for a large commercial bakery that made fruitcakes. Big two story machinery, silos with flour, that type of bakery. We made fruitcakes out the wazoo.

I remember standing next to a ...twelve foot long bin on rollers that was full of candied fruit wondering at the smell and the wonderful colors. I also wondered if I would be fired if I dived into the vat and attempted to eat my way to the other side.

I love fruitcake. I am going to make one this year and since I am the only one in the family who likes it, it will be mine! Do you hear me? Mine all Mine! MUAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHHAHAA.

[Monterrosa-24]

You’re going to make your own??!! Maybe you should share your recipe.

[texmexis best]

I don’t have one at the moment, but will be looking for one. Maybe one of our Freeper Fruitcake Corps(e) would like to volunteer their recipe. (Must have copious amounts of booze in it!)