Fruitcake - Page 2

alicedee · ‎07-25-2010

@2Kittys wrote:
@proudlyfromNJ wrote:
@2Kittys wrote:
I there anyone on this planet that even likes or wants fruitcake? Not me!
@2Kittys Well, yes. Everyone on this thread including me. You're the odd man out.
Maybe it's an East coast/West coast thing. I'm West coast.

My family and I live in the Midwest. Each year both my brothers-in-law ask me to make them fruitcake.

jannabelle1 · ‎09-12-2010

I really think that @2Kittys should have just moved on past this thread since she obviously doesn't like (or maybe never tasted) fruitcake. I'm in the Midwest and grew up with my grandmother's and my mother's every year. DH loves it too. Since I'm not that great of a baker, I ordered several of them this year from Collin Street Bakery in Texas....a little pricey, but very moist and full of fruits and nut.....and with instructions on how to make them a bit boozey! LOL! I admire all of you on this thread who make fruitcake! It's definitely a labor of love, so kudos to you all!

FiddleDeeDee · ‎03-06-2020

@kismet IMHO, what makes fruitcake awful is when there's a bunch of stuff in it that you, the person eating it, doesn't like in any way. For me, that would be booze, orange peel, pineapple chunks and big chunks of cherries...oh and big chunks of walnuts (any nut).

It may be an oral thing but I prefer those items in tiny bits. So, making my Great Great Grandmothers recipe, I changed it to fit the taste of myself and my family:

No pineapple

No orange peel/bits

Small pieces of walnuts that I chop

Small (I mean diced) pieces of green and red cherries

I use golden and dark raisins

No booze.

It is a recipe that is requested by every person who eats it. I give it as gifts in little loaf pans to those I know like it and they prefer that over something store bought (so do I, being honest). So, do what works for you and what you and your family prefer. I see those half walnuts and whole/large fruit pieces and it's a huge turn-off.....but that's ME.

"Coming to ya from Florida"

IamDoodles · ‎03-12-2010

@jannabelle1 wrote:
I really think that @2Kittys should have just moved on past this thread since she obviously doesn't like (or maybe never tasted) fruitcake. I'm in the Midwest and grew up with my grandmother's and my mother's every year. DH loves it too. Since I'm not that great of a baker, I ordered several of them this year from Collin Street Bakery in Texas....a little pricey, but very moist and full of fruits and nut.....and with instructions on how to make them a bit boozey! LOL! I admire all of you on this thread who make fruitcake! It's definitely a labor of love, so kudos to you all!

I just received my Collin Street Bakery fruitcakes this week. It is so darn good. I've made fruitcake in the past but it is too much work. This is the best fruitcake on the planet.

kismet · ‎03-10-2010

I had to order my fruit from Amazon since the stores don't have much around here. I guess no one makes it here. I did get the raisins from the store. My mom use to go to the small store in town and get the fruit from a large barrel and it would be weighed by the store. Never bought it in a container. I never tasted it growing up being a kid thinking it looked gross. Mom made it and no one ate it but her and dad. As I got older I tasted it and it was so good. I make it for me and my daughter. Years ago when I worked I took it for my friends and my supervisor asked if she could have the recipe. She said it was the best she ever had and she knows fruitcake. I think of her every christmas and wonder if she made it all these years. I don't put any liquor in mine but at times have thought about it. My strongest drink is coffee so the liquor is out. I did cut all the cherries, pineapple and nuts last night. It took me almost 3 hours. The raisins took the longest. I've always loved to cook and bake so don't mind doing the work. Now on to the sugar cookies. I'm late this year. I do love my sugar cookies frosted or not. I like rolling them out and decorating too. It's very relaxing.

alicedee · ‎07-25-2010

Just a note....was going to use maraschino cherries, as I couldn't find glacé....but read yesterday not to use them in fruitcake that won't be eaten right away!

So...on the King Arthur site they have a recipe for making glacé cherries from maraschino cherries. It looked very simple, so I will be doing that today.

Update: My glacé cherries turned out great! Tasted one, and it was delicious! Got two plates like this from a 16 oz. jar of maraschino cherries.

2Kittys · ‎11-13-2020

I really don't know how to describe it. It's like when I read stuff posted here, it feels to me like everything is "home town" or "home body", always in the kitchen cooking or baking, always making quilts, a lot of knitting. I'm from Ca. (now from Vegas), and I don't know anyone who does stuff like that. One time, my SIL and I went to a wedding, and the wedding cake had 1 tier was fruitcake. It was like a brick! We both started laughing so hard, not getting why anyone would have that as their wedding cake. We both ate around that tier, and left it behind.

bonappetit · ‎07-21-2017

Homemade fruitcake is wonderful & takes some effort. Not only making, but acquiring all the ingredients, which is a lot of stuff. Have you looked at Kingarthur.com? They have wonderful ingredients for making fruitcake. Enjoy

candys mine · ‎08-20-2012

@2KittysFruitcake as a wedding cake has a Very LONG History. Hundreds and hundreds of years in fact. It takes a lot of 'special" ingredients that were precious and hard to come by back then. Weddings were a Big Deal so the cake was more special than Anything they could afford to make usually. Fruitcake also Keeps for a long time. The old tradition was to keep a piece to celebrate the first aniverssary of the union or even Better in those days was the birth of the first child which they hoped would come before the anneversary. Your friends wedding fruitcake was a nod to wedding tradition ages old. Hope you and your SIL enjoyed the rest of the celebration you were invited to.

It may be heavy but if a batter is laden with fruit and nuts and oftentimes alcohol soaked it WILL be dense. Some fruitcakes are more tasty than others but don't Knock 'em till you've tried 'em.

You are right also when you see many posters here have been cooking, baking, canning and sewing, quilting, knitting, crocheting and a number of other home skills. I, myself, wish I had the time and the knack for Half of what they know and do. A skill is a skill.

edited: sorry I said the birth but it was the Most important Christening of the child back then that warrented the special cake.