Thursday, December 3, 2020

Memories: Fruit Cake

 We have been doing a lot of decorating these past days. There will be posts featuring them. Everything we put out evokes memories. I guess that's what happens when you get old.

Today I made fruit cake, and it was no different. The memories were there too.

My fruitcake recipe was clipped from an insert in our electrical bill many years ago. It is dated 1981. I guess that means I have been making this fruit cake most years for almost 40 years! Oh my.

The recipe is kept in this binder. My mother-in-law made this batik cover and the binder, holding some old family recipes, was a wedding gift over 50 years ago. 
Some of the special ingredients. 
The recipe calls for six cups of fruit and nuts. For me that is a cup each of red and green candied cherries, a cup of candied pineapple, a cup of golden raisins, a cup of toasted hazelnuts, and a cup of walnuts. 

Two eggs, a cup of honey, 1 3/4 cups of mincemeat, and one cup of flour complete the mix. 

I bake it in two leaf pans, 300 degrees for 1 1/2 hours. 

After the cakes are completely cooled, I wrap them in brandy soaked cheese cloth, seal them up in plastic bags,  and store them in the pantry to age. 


Lots of people don't like fruitcake, but we do, and Jill does, and she is disappointed if I don't make it. It is moist and delicious and keeps well when kept wrapped, so we can enjoy it well into January. 

There were more memories today. We put up the travel tree. 


But that will be another post. 

I hope you are enjoying holiday memories. We'll make some this year, too, but they may be a little different. :-/


14 comments:

  1. I love really good fruitcake, and yours definitely looks like it fits the bill. All the best ingredients! :-)

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  2. We love fruitcake, too. In past years I have made panforte instead - love that, too. This is the year for doing something completely different so for our non-Thanksgiving we had Italian Day instead. I didn't do festive food but everyday food - a simple soup, dinner a platter of crudites but I also made biscotti and the crowning touch was some authentic Italian bread from Carol Field's cookbook - my how time can turn a little yeast, water, salt, flour into a glorious-smelling huge puff of wonderful bread. For non-Christmas we are doing French day - I already have croissants in the freezer (this will be a day of little cooking) and chocolate truffles are hidden away. I'll wait until just before to gather some french cheeses and maybe an omelet will appear. We also watch an appropriate movie - Sophia Loren's latest for Italian Day and still a choice for French Day. We also have a jigsaw puzzle going of lavender fields inbetween France and Italy - hope we can finish it by New Year's - it is 1500 pieces. This is a once in a lifetime holiday unlike any other.

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  3. I love fruitcake. However we don't make it anymore with just the two of us do we buy some fruitcake.

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  4. I enjoy fruitcake but none of my family do. I like that your recipe makes two loaves - my mom's made massive amounts so I've never even attempted it.

    The little tree is lovely. Enjoy the memories.

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  5. I love fruitcake, even the lowly super market version. I would probably go nuts over a real one.

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  6. My mom made fruit cake and I never liked it much but didn't tell her...lol! Now I'm diabetic and it has too much sugar!

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  7. Your fruitcake uses a lot more fruit than my recipe which must make it EXTRA wonderful. I was having a hard time finding any candied fruit and asked a friend who makes fruitcake every year. She said she made too much fruit and offered to give me some. Hmmm... I wonder if she could use masks. Then again, she's so accomplished that she must have a gazillion of them already.

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  8. We both love fruitcake. Funny, I woke up thinking about making a fruitcake and wishing for a simply recipe. Guess I need to get busy. Christmas is three weeks away. Your fruitcake looks delicious. I love seeing your decorated trees.

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  9. Your fruit cakes look wonderful. We love fruit cake and I've made mine . There are some members of this family who would be devastated if they didn't get their usual cake.

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  10. I don't like it but I like seeing it at other people's homes. I know a lot of people that like it. It just seems like a decoration for the season to me. Enjoy your cake.

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  11. My mother in law used to make a killer fruitcake, but she's gone now. We order it from Trappist Abbey instead. How old is that magnificent Christmas cactus you put on the blog a few episodes back? That is a fabulous plant.

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  12. those cakes looks so absolutely delicious. I must get busy this week on baking and decorating. We only put lights out on the dock.

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  13. Not my favorite...I think it must be an acquired taste. Yours looks pretty! Yeah for decorating...I am really slow with that this year. :)

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  14. My husband always said there was only one fruitcake ever in his family and it was passed from one sibling to another as a gift each year, saved in the freezer for the following year's recipient. I have had fruit cake that I enjoyed and some that I did not. It's all about a good and trusted recipe.

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