What is wrong with Christmas Fruit-cake?

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 10:14 am

I'll tell you what. I hear it bad-mouthed all the time.....you simply have never tasted a good fruit-cake if you do so. Don't ask me how to make a good one, but I've definitely tried quite a few. They have to contain Rum, and be of a dark-colored texture, containing all sorts of ingredients.....no particular stuff. It's the rum I think that's important.....But I'll try them all.

colin2 · Post by **colin2** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 6:07 pm

I realize they may not be your favorite source, Bluefront, but the old New York Times cookbook has several good recipes and the current site offers:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.h ... A96F948260

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/19/dining/19cake.html

It's the brown sugar that gets you the dark color and richer taste.

Because classic fruitcake is mostly candied fruit with just enough cake to hold it together, the quality of the fruit is critical. These folks:

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/landing.jsp?go=Home

are one source of high-quality candied fruit, not to mention nuts.

You also want decent rum, both to soak the fruit in beforehand and to give the cake an occasional moistening over the several months between baking and eating. The commercial cakes are bad because they use lousy fruit and don't get that aging and care.

Anyone capable of building a PC can do this. It's just a different kind of geekery, and a lot easier to share with friends and family.

Wedge · Post by **Wedge** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 7:18 am

First off I would like to thank colin2 for the word "geekery". It has been added to my vocabulary.

Secondly, Bluefront apparently hasn't received the fruitcake yet. (There is an old joke that there exists only one fruitcake in the world that just keeps getting passed from one person to the next as a gift because nobody will eat it).

But seriously, I do love a good fruitcake. A second thanks to colin2 for the links. I will definitely give them a read.

flyingsherpa · Post by **flyingsherpa** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 9:27 am

i personally find candied fruit to be horrid, but perhaps i've just never had the good stuff. like how really bad tequilla doesn't really taste anything like tequilla... maybe there are good candied fruits out there. but i don't really like the rest of the cake either (though I do like rum). hmm, there are just so many other yummy holiday foods out there; i'd rather enjoy those than sample every fruitcake to find a good one. but to each his own

happy holidays!

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 9:44 am

My fruit-cake eating days are over, ..... since I'm not much of a cook. I suppose the store-bought ones could be ok if you found the right brand.

But another secret about this.....the aging process, about one to two months, during which time the cakes were removed from their brown paper wrapping about every few weeks, and brushed with the rum (or straight whiskey). I doubt if any store brands go through sufficient aging time, much less the alcohol treatment.

My favorite holiday treat......mother's fruit-cake, smothered in warm lemon sauce. Never again I'm afraid.

Wedge · Post by **Wedge** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 10:16 am

Tangential topic (holiday foods): How many of you like or have tried divinity?

djkest · Post by **djkest** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 12:19 pm

Fruitcake can be very good but I hate candied fruit.. it's so disgusting. Maybe high quality fruit would make it beter. Maybe if someone made fruitcake with high quality dried fruit like raisins and apricots and applies I'd like it. Rum makes it good though, for sure.

derekva · Post by **derekva** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 12:55 pm

Fruitcake is great! It's fairly dense but has open cells and can be sliced thinly enough to cover inner panels and provide inexpensive (and nice-smelling) sound damping. Add the adhesive qualities of the candied fruit and you have a rival for Dynamat!

Oh wait, you meant to eat?

derekva · Post by **derekva** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 4:28 pm

On a serious note, I just had some really good fruitcake - unfortunately it had pecans in it (I'm mildly allergic to nuts). But of what I could eat, it was quite delicious.

colin2 · Post by **colin2** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 1:34 pm

I dunno if the link will hold, but the Dec 22 WSJ

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119829714746346773.html

had a nice piece with several good ideas, including a pointer to this site

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/recipes/fruitcake.html

which uses dried, not candied, fruit.

The candied fruits I end up using are ginger (and you have to pay for the good stuff e.g. http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/detail.jsp?id=1191) and orange and lemon peel, none of which really work as dried fruit. But as Paul Brians points out you can grate in orange and lemon rind directly. And come to think of it mine, which draw heavily on the NYT cookbook, are probably about half currants and raisins and diced dried apricot by weight, all soaked in Myer's dark.

Or you can just drink the rum.

Wedge · Post by **Wedge** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 4:55 pm

colin2 wrote:Or you can just drink the rum.

rum + pineapple = mmmmmmmmmmm