OK - two more hours of Halloween left: how soon should I make my Christmas fruitcake?

[hedgehog]

[orleans]

1. i started working on mine last week. you'd better hurry! they go so quickly because

EVERYBODY and their brother wants one!!!

[hedgehog]

4. I discussed the recipe with two of my kids today. I be taking dried fruit:

cherries, dark raisins, red raisins, zante currents and chopped apricots and soaking them in Irish Mist, then adding them with roasted almonds to a spiced honey cake batter. None of that fluorescent candied fruit from the grocery store!

[orleans]

6. actually i was joking. i don't like fruit cake--but you make it sound quite good.

perhaps i would try some of yours if given the chance--but only yours. no one else's.

[hedgehog]

7. I'm looking over what I typed, and it sounds like I've already been hitting the Irish Mist!

( I be for I'll be) That's what happens when you post in the middle of a sneezing fit.

And - absolutely - you'd love my fruit cake. Everyone does - except my daughter who doesn't like raisins or dried cherries when they are mixed into anything else.

[orleans]

10. (just so long as you don't be sneezing on the cheese cake...i mean fruit cake!) n/t

[uppityperson]

11. Using real dried fruit, they are great. That died square wtf is it stuff from the store, not so much

Your recipe sounds delicious. I'll send you my address if you need a taste tester.

[GoCubsGo]

18. Yum!

The dried fruit, soaked-in-booze ones are the best! That recipe sounds delicious!

[pinboy3niner]

5. Why not just regift the ones nobody ate from years past?

[catnhatnh]

2. Oh Boy

you SOUND like a Christmas fruitcake...

[pinboy3niner]

3. Never!

Sorry, not a fan of it.

[mackerel]

8. We have half of one left in the fridge from last year. My mother won't let me throw it out.

[hedgehog]

12. If it's any consolation - I still have the Butterball turkey that our neighbor gave us last winter

he wanted to thank us for letting him hunt out back and I just didn't have the heart to tell him that that wasn't really necessary.

[shenmue]

9. Now

[malthaussen]

13. You *make* fruitcake?

I thought the tradition was just to pass on the One Original Fruitcake from place to place each year...

-- Mal

[sarge43]

14. Why bother?

Just use the one somebody left on your front step. They never go away; they're recycled. We have one stamped SPQR, probably used as ballista ammo. One of my Gallic ancestors bagged it and passed it down through the generations.

[Baitball Blogger]

15. The only fruit cake I like is banana flavored.

[hedgehog]

16. Mmmmmm....Banana cake soaked in rum.....

[Liberal Veteran]

17. Easy enough. Do it now. Make your masterpiece. Coat in shellac. Never have to make it again.

It's not like anyone is ever going to actually eat it.

[pipi_k]

19. Slacker!!!

Too late now.

You should have made fruitcake in July,when all the Christmas stuff started appearing.


Seriously, though

I love fruitcake, but have never had home made. I'll bet it's tasty.


I had some fruitcake in my freezer from a Christmas long forgotten, took it out and left it for the local raccoon family. Well, apparently only one of them was brave enough to eat it. He's still carrying around the extra weight. I swear that furry beast must be close to 50 lbs.

[csziggy]

20. Now - then soak it in rum for the next two months

Mom never made fruitcake but one year she bought one and soaked it in rum for a month before Thanksgiving. She also made mincemeat pie from scratch (once) and to go on both of them she made hard sauce. Nobody made any compliments about the fruitcake or mincemeat pie - but she got lots of compliments about her hard sauce. The most compliments came from my great aunt who was a strict teetotaler.

Here is Mom's recipe for hard sauce:
a 16 oz bag of powdered sugar
enough rum to make the desired thickness of sauce
Mix until smooth.

For my great aunt Mom changed the recipe slightly:
1 16 oz bag of powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
enough milk to make the desired thickness of sauce.

For some reason the great aunt's hard sauce never was quite as good as Mom's was!

[jmowreader]

21. This week should be fine

You do mean your Christmas 2015 fruitcake, correct?

I'm only slightly joking; in the Good Old Days people really did make them a year in advance so they'd have plenty of time for curing. A couple months' age should be enough to get it nice and tasty, so if you bake it this week and wrap it in rum-soaked muslin (and brush more rum on it every week or so until you eat it) it should be good come December 25.