In Defense of the Much Maligned Fruitcake.

[Denninmi]

A neighbor gave us a "gourmet" fruitcake complete with a decorative tin from an apparently large bakery in one of the southern states. Supposed to be just wonderful. Well, it's sweet, and semi-attractive on top, with pecans halves and a small handful of red cherries and green pineapple chunks. That's about all I can say for it. It is completely flavorless, and pretty lacking in the way of fruit. Apparently, in order to not impart flavor into this creation, they only basically use a bit of candied pineapple as the fruit inside of the fruitcake.

While I of course thanks the neighbor profusely for this almost $30 with shipping, not quite 2 lb, monument to bland, and I would never want to her to think we didn't enjoy it, probably most of it will go to my chickens.

I find it rather curious that commercial fruitcakes are always SO bad. At least, every one I've ever tried has been. Generally flavorless, often with an overly dry, almost sawdust texture. Perhaps out there somewhere, a commercial bakery is making wonderful fruitcakes, but if so, I haven't come across one. No wonder fruitcake has such a terrible reputation in this country.

So, who makes their own fruitcake? I do, and quite often I even make the candied fruits myself. Many times, I've used various citrus peels, carefully cleaned, scraped of pith, boiled first to remove the bitterness, rinsed, and then candied in sugar syrup, plus various other dried and candied fruits -- raisins, figs, dates, cherries, pineapple, apricots, prunes, papaya, mango, even cranberries and dried sliced kiwi. And, usually as many kinds of nuts as I can get my hands on, pretty much anything except for peanuts (too common) or chestnuts (wrong type of nut, starchy, not oily, really more like a potato functionally).

I've made various kind of batters over the years, both dark and light, and various flavorings. The "classic" light but still noticeable nutmeg/clove/cinnamon/ginger/allspice blend is my favorite, but other mixes work as well. I did a white "tropical" fruitcake once that included papaya, mango, pineapple, cherries, coconut, macadamias, Brazil nuts, and ginger/cardamom as the predominant but subtle spices that was very nice.

If you make a great fruitcake, or even know of one commercially made, please share.

[The empressof all]

1. I'm one of the few who loves all fruit cake even the really bad commercial ones

But I always swathe them in cheese cloth and bathe them in rum or bourbon a few times a day for at least three days before serving. :rofl:

[Warpy]

2. I've had a thin, almost transparent slice of a home made fruit cake

that was made of fresh and dried, undyed fruit and plenty of nuts and had soaked up brandy for 3 months before it was cut into. It was absolutely wonderful. I would have liked more but didn't want to chance a migraine from the brandy.

I agree the commercial jobs are awful. Perhaps buying early and soaking in brandy would help them, even though it wouldn't do much for the technicolor dyed fruit.

Then again, it might just ruin a good bottle of brandy.

[housewolf]

3. My mom used to make a wonderful fruitcake

So I have to say that I like _some_ fruitcakes, but not necessarily all of them. She'd make huge big batches of them around Thanksgiving Day Weekend, then wrap each one in cheesecloth and douse with brandy or rum once a week or so until Christmas. It was a traditional candied fruit & nuts in a spiced batter cake. They ware so delicioius, I still dream about them. I have the recipe and in fact made it myself a time or two many years ago, but it's way too much for someone living alone and it's such an iffy thing to give as a gift (as you well know!).

For a couple years, about 20 years ago, I was "in love" with Harry & David's Fruitcake Confection, but I soon last my taste for it - don't know whether they changed their recipe or whether my tastes changed but I found that every time I had one, I'd end up tossing most of it. You could probably improve the one you were given by soaking it in brandy or some other alcohol, wrap it in cheesecloth and store in a tin, then re-baste it every few days or once a week when it starts to dry again, but that would take some time.

You have my condolences - it's disappointing when someone gives you a gift you know thay spent some $$$ on, and it's not something that you'd like.

As an afterthought, you could possibly experiment with something like a bread pudding recipe subbing fruitcake for the bread, and see what you come up with. Maybe make it in muffin tins, custard bowls or something small and individual like that. I've never seen a recipe like that ... just a thought.

[hippywife]

4. I adore fruit cake and I do make my own.

I love the stuff and used to eat it no matter where I found it or how bad it was. But after I started making it myself, I find that I can't always eat just any fruit cake.

I'm impressed that you do your own fruit. As much as I hate commercially processed foods, I'm afraid I haven't gone that far yet.

:hi:

[Denninmi]

6. RE: processing fruit for fruitcake.

It's actually not hard, just somewhat time consuming. Most of it is sort of on autopilot, requiring minimal attention.

The processing of citrus peel is the most time consuming. First of all, it's better, IMO, to get something organic if possible, since they do use a lot of funky things on citrus, pesticide/fungicide wise. But, if all you can get are conventionally grown, a good wash and scrub in warm water with just a tiny drop of dawn removes most of the ick, so I'm told. At any rate, I've done that many times, and I guess I'm still alive.

Any citrus peel will work. Pummelo is especially nice, because it's really thick, and actual citron IF you can find it. With thicker skinned citrus, you do need to remove as much of the white pithy stuff under the skin, since it's bitter. Easiest way is to cut the skins into wedges or quarters, and then boil for about 20 minutes, cool, and the white pith will scrape off pretty easily with a teaspoon. Then, boil again briefly in another change of water, rinse again, and candy.

Thin skinned citrus (lemons, limes, mandarins, tangerines) don't really need this treatment. And, Kumquats can be left intact with the flesh, just cut in half and remove the seeds.

To candy the fruit/peel, just cut into the desired size/shape, and them boil them VERY SLOWLY in thick sugar syrup, 1 part sugar to 1 part water. This can actually be done in a crockpot on low, but it still needs attention once in a while, especially towards the end, to avoid burning.

When you add the fruit or peel, a lot of moisture will come out and dilute your syrup. I often actually drain it off at this point, reduce it in a non-stick skillet over high heat, stirring constantly, until thickened up again, and then return to the fruit -- speeds up the process considerably.

[Phentex]

5. My elderly mom still makes them. I think about 6 people

really like hers so she works on them early so they can age and then she mails a couple (always gripes about how much it costs to mail them, lol) and gives some out locally.

I never cared for any kind of fruitcake really. Well, the dense heavy kind.

Now, my sister makes a kind of fruitcake cookie that people really do like! I'll have to ask her what she puts in them.

[hippywife]

7. Mine has very little batter at all.

Just enough to hold all the fruit and nuts together.

[GoCubsGo]

8. That tropical fruitcake sounds absolutely delicious!

I may have to try make one like that one of these days. Except, I'll have to leave out the papaya. Papaya makes me violently ill, unfortunately. And, I will be soaking that baby in coconut rum. Might be a good remedy for that gift cake of yours, too. :-)

The only commercial fruitcakes I've been seeing around town have been the ones the local supermarkets produce, and those made by Claxton. Although I'm not a big fan of candied fruit, the Claxton cakes are not half bad, especially the "dark" recipe. They're actually more fruit and nuts than they are cake.