Poll: Fruit Cake - Love it or Hate it?

[piratesmate]

We've all heard the jokes about the proverbial re-gifted fruitcake at Christmas. How do you feel? Is it the stuff of legend, or is it something you use as a door stop?

I'll go first. I love it - depending on the recipe. My grandmother made it every year & soaked it in brandy. The longer she kept it, the better it tasted! My mother found a recipe one year with maraschino cherries & Brazil nuts...it was awful!!!

So how about you?

 

[holycow]

I love fruit cake for the laughs! I remember a radio station in LA that read a list every year of all the things you could use fruit cake for....I always had a great laugh over that one....

and I recall on the DIS a story a woman told when they were cleaning out an office of a fruit cake they found in a file that was 10 years old!!!!!! (the story was unbelievable but who knows!)
it was good for a laugh!

hc

 

[Spinning]

don't say I love it but I do like it. But only a certain kind. I don't like the ones made with candied fruit rines. I like the ones made with dried fruits and nuts and the big green and red cherries. I have a great recipe!

 

[Jiminy102]

Dh loves loves loves Fruit Cake!!!!! I like fruit cake!! We buy several each year and I think he eats 95% before I know we have them!!

 

[piratesmate]

Hey Spinning - Please share your recipe! I'll share one of my favorites now & maybe the other one later. I like this one because the cake is very moist. Years ago, Stroehman's used to make one that was excellent - very moist & a lot of cake to it. (My grandmother's used to be mostly fruit & the cake was kind of hard.)

I must admit, though, that I really like the candied fruits. My kids don't & DH could live without it. I always get an Entenmann's Stollen every year for Christmas morning, too. Mmmmmm!

Fruitcake Bon-bons
Yield: 70 minis
6 oz orange juice concentrate
½ c dark molasses
15 oz raisins (3 cups)
2 c candied fruit (reserve ½ cup for garnish)
1 c chopped dates
½ c butter
2/3 c sugar
3 eggs
1¼ c flour
1/8 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp allspice
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
1 c chopped walnuts

Combine orange juice, molasses & raisins. Cook on medium heat, stirring often to prevent sticking, until it boils. Simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in candied fruit (less ½ cup for garnish) & dates. Set aside.

Cream butter & sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Sift dry ingredients & stir into creamed sugar mixture. Add the orange juice mix and nuts. Mix well.

Line mini muffin tins with paper. Put ~1 Tbl batter in each (~¾ full). Top with reserved fruit. Bake at 350 for 20 - 25 minutes on the middle shelf. Remove when brown on top.

(NOTE: Do not use low shelf in oven!!)

 

[Spinning]

Ok this is my family fruit cake recipe:

2 oz. golden raisins
1/2 cup cognac
1/2 cup pineapple juice
2 cups whole red and green candied cherries
1 cup soft dried apricots cut into strips
2 cups brazil nuts (my favorite so I add lots!)
1 cup whole toasted almonds
1 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract
3 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
11/2 salt
1/2 tsp ginger
8 egg whites

Place raisins, cognac and pineapple juice in a pan and cook over low heat for 5 minutes. Remove and stir in fruit, nuts and apricots
Set aside
In a mixer combine sugar, shorting, and extracts until light add egg whites until fluffy. set aside
Resift flour with baking powder, salt and ginger slowly add to sugar mixture then till soft peaks form.
Sit in fruit and nut mixture
Now this is a little complicated or I should say hard to explain.

take a 10 inch tube pan line it with greased heavy brown paper. Allow paper to extend 2 inches above pan Pour in batter. Lay a piece of foil over top of cake. Bake in a slow over, at 275 for about 41/2 hours. Also place a small pan of water on bottom rack .
Let cake stand in pan for 1 hour before you remove it.
Then pour about a shot of cognac over it once a week until Christmas. Keep it in a sealed container. Also my mom always cut up apples and placed on top discard these before serving. This cake is best to make around Thanksgiving. It freezes well and mine usually makes two cakes because I never measure all the fruit and nuts! I just add it all in! As my dad always said, "best to have just a little cake and more fruit and nuts!"

 

[piratesmate]

Thanks Spinning! (I missed your recipe earlier because I'm not getting my email notifications. ) A quick question - what are "tasted almonds"? When I read it I thought you meant a scant cup because you'd eaten some.

Here's the other recipe I like. Under no circumstances use anything but disposable foil pans or you'll never get them out!!
BTW - I don't know who "Sony" is.

Sony’s Mommy’s Fruitcake
1½ lb chopped dates
1½ lb pecan halves
½ lb candied cherries
½ lb candied pineapple
½ lb coconut or
½ lb almonds, sliced
2 cans Eagle Brand milk
Mix all ingredients well. Use disposable 8½x4x2½ pans. Grease & flour pans. Bake at 225 for 2 hours. Do not overbake. Cool in pans on rack. Turn pans upside-down on rack for several minutes, then thump bottom of pans to remove. Cut if necessary to remove. Consume immediately, or wrap in cloth soaked in apple cider or cherry brandy, then foil.

 

[Beanie]

Definitely not a fruit cake lover here! I have only tried it once and didn't like it at all! Maybe I need to give it another chance? LOL

 

[Spinning]

oops....should be toasted almonds!

 

[TinkerPixxie]

Ok I agree with Spinner
Not fond of the candied fruit ones. Prefer fresher fruits .
I had a recipe last years that was wonderful, not surei t was exactly a fruitcake, it had a can of pumpkin pie filling in it i remember that. Gosh i wish i could find the recipe.


Going to try Spinners
Tink

 

[piratesmate]

Spinning - Duh! Sorry - I woulnd't have drawn attention to the typo if I'd been able to figure it out. I'm just having a bad brain day I guess.

Beanie - If you don't like citron, it's probably a "no go." On the other hand if candied fruit is something you like, try the bon-bons recipe. The cake part is good & moist. I included them with cookie plates on year not realizing that many people didn't like fruitcake. FIL said "eeeewwww" when he looked at them but later I caught him sneaking them off the plate...couldn't admit that he was wrong though.

 

[Beanie]

Citron? I swear I saw that in a bar before!

I don't know what it was, but the taste was "ewww" factor for me!

 

[4greatboys]

 

[piratesmate]

OK - I just thought of another question. For those of you who said did you grow up having fruitcake at your house or did your parents feel the same way?

I ask because my entire extended family made & ate fruitcake so I thought everyone liked it. In DH's family they never had it. He'll eat it now but wouldn't miss it if hever never saw another.

 

[mtblujeans]

I have a recipe for chocolate chip fruit cake that I LOVE but my family tells me it's an "acquired taste"!

 

[piratesmate]

Originally posted by mtblujeans
...but my family tells me it's an "acquired taste"!

Ummm, chocolate improves anything!!!!!!!!!!!! Would you care to share the recipe?

 

[mtblujeans]

I had only intended my recipe for the members of this message board.

 

[TXTink]

I had to vote that I loved it, but in reality, I only "like" it. But, my Dad does love it, so thank you all very much for sharing your recipes!

 

[Beanie]

Originally posted by piratesmate
OK - I just thought of another question. For those of you who said did you grow up having fruitcake at your house or did your parents feel the same way?

I ask because my entire extended family made & ate fruitcake so I thought everyone liked it. In DH's family they never had it. He'll eat it now but wouldn't miss it if hever never saw another.

No, I didn't grow up on Fruitcake. I actually never even saw it in our house, maybe twice and that is saying a lot since I really can't remember at all! I am sure one of my Grandmothers must have made it though? Anyway, my parents never ate it, so neither did us kids!!

 

[Connie of Trenton]

I like my mom' s fruitcake even though she no longer makes it every year. I recall she used to wrap it in cloth that had been soaked in pickle juice...sounds weird but it was really good!