Heather says:
In twenty-nine years of Christmases, the closest encounter I have ever had with fruitcake has been television and a short story I once read in jr high.
Tell me Home Eccers is fruitcake a regional phenomenon or have I been sheltered?
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{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Only once have I witnessed a fruitcake up close.
A crazy old Great Aunt who is quite old school brought one wrapped in festive yellow cellophane with a big bow. My cool Granny very graciously accepted the cake and tossed it into the closet with the rest of the coats.
We found it 3 years later looking very much the same as it had that Christmas long ago. No one dared to open it though. We speculate it would have made a tremendous door stop.
I’ve never seen a fruitcake up close and personal either.
My mom went through a fruitcake phase when I was a child; I remember her making them for two or three Christmases. My husband’s grandmother mailed us a fruitcake from Texas one year.
I still haven’t eaten one.
Add me to the list of people who have never eaten or even seen in real life, fruitcake.
One year the wife and I made about 30 fruitcakes to ship out to family. The candied fruits that went into them spent a few days soaking in a gallon or so of red wine. The fruitcakes were made in October, and spent the next 6 weeks wrapped in foil and plastic wrap and filling every vacant spot in our cupboards. Every day we’d take a few of them out, unwrap them and drizzle about 1/4 c of rum over the fruitcake, wrap them back up and put them back into storage.
Two weeks before Christmas, we took all the fruitcakes out, re-wrapped them in fresh plastic wrap and foil, boxed and shipped them out.
A week later we were getting messages from family members asking if we had anymore left that we could send them.
The fruitcakes we made ended up quite tasty, due mostly in part to all the rum we soaked them with I think.
That’s my fruitcake story.
Okay I’ll fess up…fruit cake isn’t bad if its homemade and not the brick you buy. How store bought fruitcake can be both hard and mushy at the same time baffles me. But real and true fruit cake is fairly good if you like nuts and fruit within a spice cake flavor along with the consistency of fudge brownies. Poor poor fruitcake…it gets a bad wrap.
My grandparents used to receive fruitcake gifts every year for Christmas, and they would serve it on Christmas day. I was quite scarred by my first taste, so I haven’t tried it since.
My friend’s father has sold fruitcake with the Civitan club for 20+ years. His family makes fruitcake cookies, which he swears are wonderful (even if you don’t like fruitcake). His daughter gave me one last week, so I’m going to try making the cookies. I’ll let you know how they turn out…
Some years, my grandmother makes fruitcake cookies for Christmas day. This year we were lucky. Dried fruit, pecans, lots and lots of butter.
As for actual fruitcake, not much of that around the family. My other (German) grandmother used to buy a Stollen every year — bleh. The German version of fruitcake. Wiki it.
I’m willing to give homemade fruitcake a try, though.
My aunt makes a lovely homemade fruitcake. I need to get the recipe. One taste will make you forget the bad rep that fruitcake normally has.
Collins Street Bakery has the most amazing fruitcake–we get and eat one every year.
And this from someone who greatly dislikes candied fruit and raisins.
Seriously, this stuff is awesome. It’s nutty and just a little cakey with rich fruits. It’s so good. I swear.
Every year we convert several people to the joy of the Collins Street fruit cake–I don’t know that we’ve ever shared it with anyone and had them dislike it. Of course we’re only willing to share a little of it
I love fruitcake. Been eating it since I was a kid. I’ve never understood what the fuss was all about.
What’s not to love? It’s fruit! And cake! It’s fruit-cake!
Add me to the list of the Collin Street Bakery fans. We ALWAYS had one of their fruit cakes when I was growing up. The fruit is moist and chewy, and they’re absolutely loaded with pecans. Another rival would be the Trappist fruit cakes. Forget those rock-solid bricks you see at the grocery store! A really well-made fruitcake is delightful.
We can’t escape the stuff here in Ireland. There’s Christmas cake which is essentially a fruitcake made in October and then come Christmas topped with a layer of marzipan and then royal icing and decorated accordingly. Interestingly enough, that is also traditional wedding cake here. Then we have the much more tasty, albeit boozy Christmas pudding. I have my Mom’s recipe on the blog. My husband thinks it’s weird, but after much complaining he tried it this year and went back for seconds…and thirds! It’s really dark and moist, not amber like normal fruitcake. Delish!
Homemade fruitcake is just fine with me. It comes in light and dark varieties, equally good. In fact, back in the day when my landlady Mrs. Smith was packing my art-student lunches, I frequently suffered FCTS (fruitcake theft syndrome) if I left my lunch unguarded. The thieves loved Mrs. Smith’s fruitcakes as much as I did.
Fruitcake seems not to be a USA kind of thing, more UK and the commonwealth. There are a lot of things Americans don’t quite “get” about British cuisine, fruitcake being one of them.
In person, I’ve only seen them in the grocery store. I almost thought they were an urban legend.
Add me to the list as someone who has only seen these on television or heard horror stories from other family members
Good to know that I am not alone!
Never saw one or ate one! But I’m always up for trying new things – I’d try to bake one before I’d buy one.
there is a fruitcake company whose name escapes me (I am toooo tired to get up and look at the packaging) that makes the very best fruitcake…something like claytons? anyway, I thought the fruitcake was the nastiest thing on earth until I tasted theirs…it is like eating cotton candy with fiber..laugh. very good, but no way would I eat anyone else’s, nor would I have tried it if not sent to me when I was a poor, starving college kid in the 80’s.
I had fruitcake a few times growing up, and loathed it. A few years ago I found a recipe that uses only real dried fruit (no candied junk) plus nuts, spices, and candied ginger. It’s delicious. I’ve converted several friends and family members with it.
Turns out it’s not fruitcake that most people hate, it’s neon-gummy-mutant-fruit.
One of the groups at my church has been making fruitcakes for decades and they’re actually quite good (and sell fast!).
Ive never actually tasted a real fruitcake, I have seen them. Several times a year, with the family gatherings! There are a few of the In lawas that could qualify!