Fruitcake- what do you do with yours?

[TheLorax]

I have an aunt who makes a block of this stuff for us ever year. We're not exactly talking tender juicy morsels that melt in your mouth if you were to try to eat any of this thing. We got ours early this year. Lucky us.

We have an assortment of seasonal cover-ups for our fruitcakes and use them as doorstops. I have a friend who was here one year when we got our fruit cake and she commented about how great it was so now she gets one every year from my Aunt. She drops hers in a bucket of water and picks out the fruits and sets them out for her squirrels and such. What do you do with your fruit cakes?

 

[Persephone]

Uh oh

....I like fruitcake.
Send it here.

 

[li'l frog]

smile when you say that

I have been making fruitcakes for YEARS, after Christmas, kids come back home to ask if there are any left. One kid peels back the foil and eats it like a bananna. If you use a good batter and fresh fruit, and avoid some of the rubbery preserved fruit, you can make a good fruitcake. If you give them a brandy bath after baking, that helps too. oke:

 

[goldenrose]

I have been making fruitcakes for YEARS, after Christmas, kids come back home to ask if there are any left. One kid peels back the foil and eats it like a bananna. If you use a good batter and fresh fruit, and avoid some of the rubbery preserved fruit, you can make a good fruitcake. If you give them a brandy bath after baking, that helps too. oke:

There are some that are AWFUL, as Lauren is apparently experiencing, maybe we should send her a GOOD one?! I think li'l frog hit the nail on the head - fresh fruit, not preserved makes a difference! My neighbor, use to get fruitcakes, they were commercially made but they didn't use preserved fruit & had a lot of nuts. I don't remember the brand, I think the company is in Texas??

 

[Heather]

The only one I ever saw that looked REALLY good was Mrs. Mauss' from a Martha Stewart X-mas special.
http://www.marthastewart.com/article/mrs-mauss-fruitcake

I'm curious, what fresh fruits are you guys using?

Have to say, we've never really been much of a fruitcake family. I prefer Fran's salted caramels and Williams-Sonoma's Chocolate tiles, quite frankly.

http://www.franschocolates.com/home.php?cat=2

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/prod...=xsrd1mall|15|||0|||||||chocolates&cm_src=SCH

Yeah, I am kind of into salt...

 

[goldenrose]

You won't believe this!!! I just googled fruitcake to see if any names would jog my memory on the brand of fruitcake my neighbor use to get/give. First off Texas is the fruitcake making capital of the U.S. so forget that idea!
LOOK OUT LAUREN we going to sic the society for the protection & preservation of fruitcake on you!!! www.fruitcakesociety.org.

 

[MoreWater]

I'm sure the ones we had in the UK were bricks made from dried fruit. Store in a cool spot, but take it out from time to time to dribble brandy onto it - seal it back up (in parchment paper back then) and store a bit more. In time, they turn into gems (blocks of brandy). :rollhappy:
...

 

[streetmorrisart]

Thankfully, no one really bothers with fruitcake in my family…we’re pfeffernüsse, lebkuchen and stollen filled with marzipan people! Haven’t gotten around to making any of them yet though. (Note to self: our place will smell awesome when I finally do.)

 

[aquacorps]

The place in Texas is Collins Street Bakery. Just placed an order a few minutes ago.

 

[TheLorax]

Really scary that such a society even exists.

Could this be a clue to you fruit cake lovers out there?

 

[NYEric]

I like fruitcake too. Unless there are nut shells in it!

 

[Ron-NY]

I look forward to a fruitcake every year but I am the only one in my family that does.

 

[TheLorax]

I dunno, seems to me as if it's a given that there are some really awful fruit cakes out there and I know the ones we are gifted don't have real fruit but do have additions of unidentifiable ingredients in them so possibly that's part of it but even the fruit cakes that I hear about being good are all being doused with liquor over time as if to kill the taste to make them palatable.

 

[swamprad]

I don't enjoy most fruitcakes that I've tasted, but my mother used to make a wonderful one. She gave me the recipe a few years back, but I've never gotten the energy to try making it.

 

[NYEric]

I'm a bachelor; I can eat anything!

 

[TheLorax]

Our animals won't even eat them if a chunk falls to the ground. They sort of pick it up in their mouths then drop it like a lead balloon. Not a good indicator given they've been known to eat a grain of rice if it hits the floor.

If there's a fruit cake recipe out there that is really moist like a carrot cake or zucchini bread is supposed to be that uses real fruit, I'd be interested in trying it... once, just once.

 

[NYEric]

Heck, I love fruit cake!

 

[Candace]

My high calorie consumption is focused on chocolate and chocolate only. No way I'm going to get a fat butt over a nasty fruitcake.

 

[SlipperFan]

My high calorie consumption is focused on chocolate and chocolate only. No way I'm going to get a fat butt over a nasty fruitcake.

Hear! Hear!!!

 

[TheLorax]

Not exactly on topic but I was at Menards the other day and couldn't help but notice they were selling fruit cakes in tins. Gag me. You know what else they were selling? Upside down Christmas trees. I thought I'd seen it all when I spotted the tins of fruit cakes along side the boxed chocolate covered pecans but an upside down Christmas tree? Who would buy one of those?