The Twelve Days of Fruitcake

Hello everyone!

Here is another post by Chris Edmonson.

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Poor fruitcake.  America has wrecked its reputation.  Once the original wedding cake recipe and still very popular in Europe, it became a joke in 20^th century culture.  Not that it doesn’t deserve it, because in fact I’ve had some terrible ones.  

But, my friends, once you’ve had English fruitcake, you will see the light.  And it was with this revelation that I knew it wasn’t the fruitcake’s fault, it was the substandard ingredients and America’s infatuation with sugar that made it so awful.  It is my quest to make one that my family looks forward to eating at Christmas.

My friend Marsha lived in Britain some years ago, and it was with her recipe from a British friend that we began our FP (fruitcake project) about seven years ago.

To begin, we double the recipe to produce two cakes, varying the type of fruit and nuts over the years, changing the booze for a better flavor booster, and generally muck about with whatever ingredients the season makes available in our supermarkets.  Our 5.5 pounds of dried/glacee fruits and nuts include raisins, currants, cherries, lemon and orange rind, walnuts, almonds, pecans, and ginger.  Some years we add mango or apricots.  

The first years we experimented with light and dark rums, switching the brands and decided that we liked scotch whiskey better than rum.  Brought up on cheap scotch, it was a new world for me to find a decent bottle under $20.00 that we could split to bathe our cakes from early November to Christmas Eve. 

Each year we have a different result -- each seem a marked improvement.  At least people tell me that they like it, but they could  be lying for all I know.

But there is one big problem for me – I HATE the red and green cherries, the tasteless, gooey  fruit that scream corn syrup.  One year we left them out --  alas, it didn’t help.  I missed the cherries, but I still HATED them. “This doesn’t make any sense” said my husband, shaking his head.  

November 2013 arrives and I shake out the batter-splattered recipe, determined to find a better way.  It is, I realize now, the poor offerings in our stores.  You may recall the tin of Lyle’s black treacle I lugged home from Shropshire --  I set it on the table and stare at the beautiful red tin.  

My eureka moment arrives: there must be real, “home glazed” fruit out there on the intertubes. And there is! Nuts.com website is the ticket.  Colorful, fun, amazing reviews of the huge array of nuts and fruits of all kinds from a family company in Newark, NJ.  In three generations, Grandpa’s shop is today’s Food Channel success! 

 I am convinced that Nuts.com, along with magic of black treacle, will bring honest-to-goodness happiness. I order eight pounds of fruit, including glazed red cherries “so good one can eat them out of the bag.”

The fruit arrives in two days, in a box so hilarious that I laugh out loud.  Inside is fruity goodness in amazing packaging.  

So follow the photos to see our happy baking day.  

Our nuts this year are toasted hazelnuts and pecans;  the fruit includes currants, glazed cherries, candied citron, orange peel, and ginger.  The black treacle made all the difference in the world. 

We are willing to share the recipe with anyone brave enough to bake it for 2014.

The photo I don’t have is one of slices of cake, showing the beautiful interior, served with a cup of tea or eggnog, which is how it MUST be consumed.

Happy New Year, 2014!  Eat well, and love one another.