Fruitcakes have become progressively more unpopular over the last forty years, and have been used for everything from doorstops to rat poison. But both my mother and grandmother made fruitcakes, some of them lasted for years in the freezer, and I grew up eating and liking them. There's plenty of good flavor in a well made fruitcake. Dates, citron, candied orange peel, cherries, walnuts, and lots of fragrant spices--admittedly in a rather heavy cake matrix. Fruitcakes have more flavor than most other holiday foods, and that easily makes up for the lack of lightness in the cake. Haven't eaten fruitcake for a while now, but that's mostly because I haven't seen any fruitcakes for sale cheap. I have a lot of good memories in which eating a slice of fruitcake was involved. One was always under the cake cover during the holiday season when I was a kid.

I wonder if the unpopularity of the fruitcake might be a result of people trying to eat them the wrong way. The only way to eat a fruitcake, just by itself, is as a slice, sometimes quite thin. Also good to have a cup of cocoa or something else, maybe cappucino, to accompany the fruitcake. Never try to eat it as a thick slice, the way you might eat a regular cake. Too much flavor, and the texture is too heavy.

Another way we used to eat fruitcake, was to dice it in chunks maybe three quarters of an inch to an inch, and put the chunks in with a dish of vanilla ice cream. I've heard of people putting vanilla sauce on fruitcake, but that doesn't sound all that good to me. I'd presume there are a variety of different ways that people have eaten them in combination with other things over the years. Fruitcakes aren't really intended to be used as a dessert, and are better as a snack.

Neither my mother nor my grandmother drank, and they normally didn't spike the fruitcake. But, of course, rum and other hard liquors are commonly added to the recipe, and that's another attraction for connoisseurs. I've read that, in Japan, fruitcakes which resemble strawberry shortcake are popular during the Christmas season. But, of course, Christmas in Japan is a little strange. The most common Christmas dinner there, is fried chicken.

Hope everybody has the best of holiday foods, and not too much of any of them. Except maybe the eggnog.

Great post! Most people have had poorly made fruitcakes. Good homemade fruitcake can be delicious. As to ones I get as gifts, I use 'em as door stops. BUT if some cute fruitcake sashays by..mmmm..maybe I'd enjoy a nibble.

As a kid, I would epoxy them. I used a two part epoxy style resin, and saturation coat them (and other things) to completely seal them. I would sell them as novelties. Usually di 15-20 every year. Folks would give them as gag gifts.

OTOH, I have eaten good fruitcake, though it was a rare piece. Most I have tried have been horrible - Grandma M's was some lethal shit. Wouldn't even use it as a throwing weapon.

Fruit cakes, especially the enriched varieties we call Christmas cakes are most excellent combined with a sharp, mature cheddar cheese. As Beau Geste says thin slices are recommended. Oh, and a glass of port or Madeira would go well too.

Snakecharmer has it right: home made are infinitely to be preferred over shop bought.

Mmm... Now I have the munchies. I wonder if there are any mince pies left?

Deplorable as shop bought might be, there are two at the Vermont Country Store that sound fetching - fruitcake and plum pudding. I've never tried either, but reports from you culinary explorers will be welcomed.

Go to http://www.vermontcountrystore.com/Shop and search for fruitcake and plum pudding.

I'm of the homemade-is-actually-good variety on Fruitcakes.

Mom made a fairly light fruitcake (not talking about me) which didn't have too much fruit in it... enough moist cake to make it yummy. Best part; she would make them in October, and then soak white, cotton cloths in whiskey and wrap the cakes in the cloth, then wrap tinfoil around the whole thing. She'd remove and re-apply the cloths (with a fresh load of whiskey or rum) and let 'em sit for another few weeks.

Yum.....

Good Grief!...I mean "Good Morning".

(Yesterday's quail hunt was too &^%#! successful so I was told we're going again today...leaving in fifteen minutes! Damn!)

Ennyway, about fruitcakes...

My best friend and you-know-what, Ash(leigh), makes what she calls a Cherry Pecan Cake. It's like a fruitcake except there are only candied cherries and fresh-gathered Texiz pecans in it, with a layer of pecan halves studding the top.

It is NOT cloyingly sweet and the balance of "cake" and "fruit/nuts" is spot on.

However, what makes the CPC so special is that, after cooling, each cake is wrapped in a cloth dripping with Maker's Mark bourbon and placed in a covered tin. The bourbon is replenished as it slowly permeates the cake and the process takes a week or so before she deems the cake ready to serve. Nirvana!

Ash(leigh) makes at least 25 of the cakes, beginning in October, and gives them to special folks at Christmas. They are VERY well-received and some people have begged her to increase production, one of my bosses requested she make 20 of them just for him and his giftees and offered her 35 bux a pop to make them. She had to decline for this season but promised she'll do them for him next year.

BTW, the cakes can be stored almost indefinitely so long as the tins are kept closed and in the fridge. Well, since the big house has a walk-in cooler she can store a couple hundred with no problem.

A word of caution: DO NOT eat more than a small slice unless you give up your car keys!

Yoli

The best fruitcake in the world comes from Collin Street bakery in Corsican, TX. They actually sell it mail order so if you have a hankering for good fruitcake, I'd suggest trying them.

http://www.collinstreet.com/pages/delux ... xwodeQuDcg

I admit it, I like fruitcake!

I have made them myself and had store bought ones, both good and unacceptable. Oddly enough, one of the best store bought fruitcakes I have found is at Costco. This may vary across the country because they may not use the same suppliers in all localities, but the ones that I have purchased at Costo locations in Southern California have been excellent in the last few years. I haven't tried this year's version yet.

I think that part the unpopularity of fruitcake, as of late, is not just because people have been exposed to substandard fruitcakes, but also due to the undue influence of late night talk shows. The host makes a joke about some product, it gets passed around the country, and all of a sudden people are embarrassed to admit they like the product. Fruitcake is just another victim of this phenomenon.

With all due respect Coinflipper, would you turn on cheesecake because Jay Leno disparaged it? I wouldn't care what anyone said,(short of e. coli contamination) I would love cheesecake and sing it's praises. Which reminds me, Costco has a really good cheesecake selection and their Key Lime Pie is to die for... mmmmm. I love Costco.