Return to Holiday Fruitcake

photo from simpleplate.com

A day for FRUITCAKE!

Yes, believe it or not, December 27 is a day that has been set aside to celebrate this oft-loved or hated (depending on your experience) dessert.

Hated?

Apparently.

At least that is what seems to be the case for some misfortunates in my little part of the world in Northern Utah, where dodging fruitcake has become a holiday pastime. I'll admit I've enjoyed the stories of neighbors and friends who laugh over the gifted loaves brought to their doors, chuckling at the idea of how many times their gift has changed hands amongst their neighbors and wondering if they dare re-gift it, lest it end up in the hands of the very first neighbor that actually baked that particular loaf.

For this reason, fruitcake has become something of an endearing and curious mystery to me. I mean, how could a dessert, that is so varied and so long-lived in the history of cooking, have gotten such a bad rap?

Based on my limited (or lacking) research, I'll simply blame it on commercial-mass production. Makers like Hostess and Edemmann's simply didn't get the recipe done right when they boxed up their hastily made loaves, which ultimately ended up in the public-shunning-of-fruitcake to become engrained in society.

Such a shame.

I grew up in a family where women in both my paternal and maternal lineage loved to bake. And thanks to a grandmother who would send the traditional Kennedy family fruitcake at the holidays, I grew up liking and eating fruitcake. The particular Kennedy to which this savory recipe is attributed is my great-grandmother on my father's side, who cooked for numerous railroad workers and travelers in her boarding house, and spent a great deal of time perfecting her fruitcake recipe. Her hand-written cookery journal held at least five different versions.

And she wasn't alone in her yearly undertaking to bake a good holiday fruitcake. Of the hundreds of cookbooks I've read over the years, I've seen as many different recipes.

Surely, a sweet bread that has been baked through multiple centuries is worth delving into at every opportunity. And with the price of nuts and dried fruit these days, each loaf could literally be worth its weight in gold -- just like this recipe I'm sharing below.

Happy National Fruitcake Day! What do you think? Do you love it or leave it?

Here's a link to some fun fruitcake facts from Foodimentary

Ribbon Fruitcake

Dark Part:
yolks of 6 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup butter
2 cups browned flour
1 1/2 lb raisins
1/2 lb citron
1/4 lb nuts
2/3 cup whiskey
1 tsp baking soda, dissolved in hot water
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice

Light Part:
whites of 6 eggs
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sweet cream
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 lb citron
1 lb chopped almonds
1/2 cup grated coconut
1 tsp rose water
1 tsp lemon extract
1 small slice of sugared orange peel






 

Happy foods

It's that time of the year, when we start thinking about food -- well, actually, we probably think about it all year, but this is the season when we might actually think more about what we'll be sharing with family and friends during the all the holidays and festivities that are to come.



I, for one, do that. But I also start zeroing in on eating "happy foods" -- foods that serve as little pick-me-ups for the brain, because for me, being the sun-lover that I am, living in a place in the winter that sees more darkness than daylight, and more fogginess than sunlight (when those temperature inversions set in), I try to keep my spirits boosted any which way I can.


After making my short list (see below), I was happy to see that at least one of my personal favorites was included on many of the happy food lists posted on the internet.




1. Salmon





















2. Pomegranate. Yes, I settle for juice, because I haven't the patience to dig out out the fruit.









3. Avocado

















No, chocolate isn't in my top three. It's not even in my top ten. And I have to admit it's beat out by another confection of the season. ... Something that I am supposed to learn how to make (this month!) per my New Year's Resolutions back in January. ... Fruitcake. But not just any fruitcake. My grandmother's fruitcake. Although looking at the recipe, I should probably rename it Datecake.




Dates, as it so happens, are included on those famous lists. They make you happy. Perhaps, I'd be willing to bet, they'll make you even happier when you eat them as cake. I like cake. Almost as much as I like pie--with apple being my favorite. ... But that's another story. For now, I'm focusing on cake.



Grandmother's Fruitcake, a.k.a., Datecake


1 pound Brazil Nuts
1 pound Walnuts
1 pound Dates, cut in pieces
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 medium size bottles marachino cherries and juice
4 beaten egg yolks
4 beaten egg whites



Put sugar over dates and nuts. Add egg yolks. Add dry ingredients and cherry juice. Add cherries. Fold in egg whites. Makes 2 loaves. Bake 1 1/2 - 2 hours in 325 - 350 degree oven.



You'll want to oil and flour the pans, too. I suspect, if you have a convection oven, or live in lower altitudes, go with the lower heat range.




Forgive the formatting. Blogger is NOT cooperating!

Fruitcake. . . . Or, How the Bubble Finally Popped.

Fruitcake was always a mystery to me. I mean, how could a dessert, that was so varied in its appearances, so long-lived in the history of cooking, have gotten such a bad rap? My great-grandmother on my father's side spent years perfecting her fruitcake recipe. Her hand-written cookery journal holds at least five different versions. And of the hundreds of cookbooks I've read over the years, I've seen as many different recipes.

So what's the deal? Surely, a sweet bread holding all this attention was worth the effort? Who cares if it needs to be carefully sawed through with a serrated blade?

How did it happen that ducking neighborly deliveries of fruitcake became a household joke around the holidays? Was commercial-mass production really to blame, as historians say?

Having grown up in a rather rural, mountainous area, I never quite grew to understand that spirited animosity. Partly I suppose, because unlike Urban/Suburbanites, we simply didn't have all that many neighbors. And partly I suppose, because thanks to a grandmother and mother who like to bake, I grew up liking fruitcake.

Yes, I grew up liking fruitcake. Eating fruitcake.

Devouring it, at the holidays, I'll admit. Just like this last one.

I'd forgotten my fondness for this dessert, actually. Having dismissed fruitcake as a dessert not worth making, thanks to popular opinion, I never bothered; and TIME, that tricky enigma, shuffled such memories to the darkest, deepest depths of my mind.

But thanks to Mom, who always has a way of doing something extra-special--who took the time to dig out Grandma's recipes and get to work long before the holidays began--those memories came flooding back this Christmas.

My grandmother, when she was living, made a great fruitcake. She'd send it out to us from Minnesota, along with her Norwegian lefse and a dozen or so cookies that she called rocks. The rocks, I didn't much care for, but the lefse and fruitcake . . . they were my favorites.

Funny, how I never quite connected THAT fruitcake -- the one my grandmother made -- with the other one -- the one everyone else seemed to hate, or pretended to hate when the holidays rolled around. Such is childhood. The bubble-world of every child's universe.

... I, for one, am so glad it finally popped. Because this year -- 12 months from now, I intend on jumping into the world of fruitcake preparation. Yep. I do.

So, neighbors and friends, watch out! I certainly hope that you'll rediscover, like I did, that fruitcake is so much worth it's every last ounce in gold, and then some.

I guess that's one New Year's resolution I'll work to keep: learn to make fruitcake.

Happy New Year!