Fruit cake stories?

[Rick Courtright]

HI,

I can't say I have a lot of the holiday spirit these days, so I'm curious: do they still make fruit cakes this time of year?

When I was a kid, there were all kinds of stories floating about concerning the things. Everybody I knew had both given and received a fruit cake for Christmas. But not a one of them would admit to having ever eaten one!

Another story had it there's only been one fruit cake made in the history of mankind, and it's just been re-gifted so many times people think there are millions of them.

Any other favorite fruit cake stories out there?

Rick C

 

[Gator89]

My wife uses my mother's recipe to make me a fruit cake every year. Lots of butter, pecans, candied cherries and pineapple, what's not to like.

No citron, dates, or any goofy stuff.

I don't share it with just anybody.

 

[clintsfolly]

My mother made fruit cake cookies and the longer they set the better they are. When my BIL was in Iraq I made and sent him a big box of them. He was a hero to his buddies for sharing!

 

[Kevin]

I love fruitcake, and got my recipe from my dad. It’s pretty darn good. And as mentioned, I don’t share it very easily either.

 

[GRAMPS 51]

Hi back in the 70s when I was driving tractor trailers I had a full load of the candies that they used in them for a bakery that was owned by a grocery store chain I had a Monday del date so I parked the truck for the weekend about 100 yds from my grandmothers house and the smell of the candied fruit was so strong she could smell it that far away as I recall she said she didn't care if she never smelled them again

Gramps

 

[gramps]

Yep, I got my grandmother’s recipe. Lots of pecans, walnuts, and almonds, along with the citrons, and marchino cherry’s. Yum! I share cakes, not the recipe.
gramps

 

[GunnyGene]

It's my opinion that properly aged fruit cake is an excellent substitute for the FBI gel blocks. :wink:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl7CcdnwNvw

 

[Rancher Will]

My wife still makes a couple of fruit cakes every Christmas, and they are delicious.

A few times through the year, she makes another cake that, I guess, is a fruit cake. It is a Pineapple Upside Down Cake" (her term). It is my favorite cake.

 

[Wyandot Jim]

My wife still makes a couple of fruit cakes every Christmas, and they are delicious.

A few times through the year, she makes another cake that, I guess, is a fruit cake. It is a Pineapple Upside Down Cake" (her term). It is my favorite cake.

Will,
I think the only cake my Mother ever made was a "Pineapple Upside Down Cake" Anyway that is only one I remember since I hated it so much. :wink: No way does canned pineapple taste like fresh. Took me about 40 years to find that out.

 

[LDM]

I've been told of the great fruitcake conspiracy. Only one batch of fruitcake was made and the cakes just keep getting re-gifted but never eaten.

 

[AJGUNNER]

Yum! I share cakes, not the recipe.
gramps

Gramps
Just in case you get over run with them, I would be a happy recipient of a shared fruit cake. I love them, but due to the reasons mentioned in this thread, I never seem to get any. If you have never had it toasted and spread with cream cheese, you are missing out.

 

[Tensaw]

I like fruit cake. I have not had a good one in a long time. Mom made a great one with a good portion of rum or bourbon. But she has been good for number of years and I still miss her.

 

[Fox Mike]

I too happen to like fruitcake. I remember that the old "C" rations had a cake in a can that was ose to fruitcake.

 

[Tom W]

I haven't too long ago gobbled down a Claxton fruit cake. I love them.


A lotta years ago when Dad retired from the Marine Corps and we moved to Saugerties, N.Y. my mother made several fruit cakes and put them into the basement of the house we were renting. It appeared the rats or mice really had a feast that year!

 

[Bob Wright]

Many, many years ago I worked at a paint & glass company, in an upstairs office. There was a little old lady, a retiree from the company, who made and brought a fruitcake to our office every Christmas.

One could get pretty high just from the fumes when it was opened! Another of her confections were Bourbon bon-bons.

Bob Wright

 

[Jimbo357mag]

My Mom always bought a fruit cake around Christmas time and it was ok but the Brandy sauce over the top was what made it.

 

[jimbo1096]

My mother made the best fruit cakes, started in November and bathed daily in Bourbon. I almost got busted once from a cake she sent me while on a ship when in the Navy. When I opened it I had every sailor within ten bulkheads in my compartment investigating where the liquor smell was coming from.

 

[graygun]

Might serve as a spare tire for Austin Healy Sprite,very early Civic or other similar vehicles.

Some fruit cakes are not bad.

 

[Colonialgirl]

I like fruit cake. I have not had a good one in a long time. Mom made a great one with a good portion of rum or bourbon. But she has been good for number of years and I still miss her.

My Uncle FLoyd use to make fruit cakes every year for Christmas; The BEST ONES were the ones he wrapped in cloth and soaked with rum or Bourbon (too long ago now to recall which); Sadly the he didn't "treat" the ones he sent to my parents, they were "Anti-Alcohol" Christians. (Take a little wine for your stomachs sake) BUT never the less the cakes were GREAT !

Yeah, I Like Pineapple upside down cake, no idea about the difference between "fresh" and canned pineapple ( Canned ones USE to be ripe when picked, NOT shipped GREEN and allowed to ripen in the store) I DO use Crushed Pineapple in my Dump Cakes.

 

[tom black]

My paternal grandmother started baking them for Christmas in 1922, once she got too old to make them my mom took over. Only once since '22 has this cake not been made for Christmas.
Tom Black

 

[toysoldier]

I've always liked fruitcake, some more than others. Haven't had any for years, and now that I have diabetes, I won't be eating much in the future.

 

[Cholo]

It's my opinion that properly aged fruit cake is an excellent substitute for the FBI gel blocks. :wink:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl7CcdnwNvw

Gotta love a gal who says a scrap wood pile comes in handy

I'm a human garbage can, but I put fruitcake up there with beets.

 

[sfhogman]

Hey there CG,
I'm right with you on pineapple upsidedown cakes...best prepared in a black iron pan, IMO.
As far as fruitcakes go...I can only suggest a certain passage in "The Egg and I", which is pretty good reading, anyway...


Jeff

 

[WendyZXZ]

Fruitcake is not that bad unless you get one that people have passed and sent around for the past 10 years!

 

[AJGUNNER]

Fruitcake is not that bad unless you get one that people have passed and sent around for the past 10 years!

Standard procedure----must serve one year as a door stop before being passed along to the next recipient.

 

[caryc]

I love fruit cake. Back when I was working, a lady in the office gave me a recipe for fruit cake. I made it that year and it was very good. I would buy fruit cake but it's so darn expensive. Maybe I'll try to find that recipe and make a batch this year.

 

[6GUNSONLY]

I'm one of the odd ones who loves a good fruitcake. Both my grandmother's made a wonderful version, but they were very different. Grandma Watson's version was actually a "jam cake", while my Nanny made a more traditional type fruitcake, baked two weeks or more before Christmas and kept in a large tin wrapped in cheesecloth that was soaked in Mogen David blackberry wine and re-moistened periodically until time to eat it. Eat a big piece of that and you couldn't pass a field sobriety test. Ha.

 

[ilikerams]

I've known a couple of fruitcakes in my time but I've never eaten one.

 

[Rick Courtright]

Eat a big piece of that and you couldn't pass a field sobriety test. Ha.

Hi,

You'd have loved one of my grandmothers' Christmas rum balls! As kids, we were limited to one per day... usually just before bed time.

Rick C