LEARN MORE

Sunday, December 21, 2008

ADVENT DAY 21: FRUITCAKE

"People don't eat like they used to," my hairdresser explained. "We'll have banana bread Christmas morning. People just don't eat such rich holiday food any more."

"My mother used to make me carry loaves of fruitcake she had baked to homes all over our neighborhood," a church member reminisced. "Folks were always really nice to me when I delivered the fruitcake, but I hated to do it. I didn't think the fruitcake tasted too good."

My mother was a true lover of fruitcake and believe me – she worked hard at the process of making it. In the fall, she would buy the candied fruit at a supermarket in Lewiston because it wasn't available in Orofino. Sometimes she would candy her own fruit, especially the pineapple. Her fruitcake recipe was more fruit than batter – just enough batter to hold the fruit together. Early in November she would bake the fruitcake so that it had time to "age" before the holidays. The baking process involved lining the pans – four of them – with brown paper, and she did that with her usual precision. To serve the cake, she would slice it thinly and arrange on a plate. She especially enjoyed holding her slice up to the light; she liked to see the light shine through the colored fruit – like stained glass.

I don't bake fruitcake. My concession to fruitcake is an old Farm Journal recipe called "fruitcake squares." On the same order as "magic bars" or "hello dolly bars," you start with melted butter and sprinkle graham cracker crumbs, then coconut, then fruit and nuts, then pour a can of sweetened condensed milk over the top. I use radiant mix but also raisins and dates. The other day I added some candied fruit to banana bread. KW

4 comments:

  1. I love fruitcake. Call me strange. :-) (For this day and age...)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't like fruitcake but my mom used to bake it too quite often. Starting early, using the brown paper, and hers involved several soakings of apricot brandy or in later years apricot nectar. YUK! Give me cookies! HA-HA!! I make Grandma Dobsons spritz recipe most years.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm glad to hear you like fruitcake, Chris. If I knew that, I'd forgotten. Did your mom make it? Or do you make it for the holidays?

    My dad laced Mother's fruitcake with brandy once or twice, but in latter years they didn't. I think Mother simply preferred the flavor of the cake without the alcohol flavor.

    And this makes a nice segue to today's topic -- Christmas cookies. KW

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nope, don't make it, never have, and neither did Mom. Or wait, she may have once... Dan's Aunt Jess had wonderful fruitcake she got from some nuns each year and it was soooo good, I couldn't stop with the little bites. Mmmm, oh the memories.

    ReplyDelete