Who likes fruitcake?

[Chile Pepper]

There aren't enough options in the poll. I wanted to vote "Blech! Why?" but had to settle for the demure "No thank you."

[kelownagirl]

love love love it. No one in my family made any this year. Sigh....

[channlluv]

My grandmother used to keep two big, gallon-size jars of brandied fruit "cooking" and would make these fantastic holiday cakes. Being oldest granddaugther, I was often assigned furniture polishing duty, and when I'd stop by that corner chest of drawers with the brandied fruit containers, I'd slip the lid off and take a big whiff and actually get a little high off the fumes.

Yeah, I admit it. I whiffed brandied fruit.

Merry Christmas everybody.

Roxy

[PamNY]

Oh, Zen, you made me want fruitcake.

Pam

[tzvia]

I used to love good fruitcake, warm with my favorite 31flavor, chocolate/peanutbutter, melting all over it...

MMMMM....
But that is how I got obese. Now I am not, and have 15 more lbs to go that just won't go and won't be helped by gooey fruitcake and ice-cream that is not on the menu any more. Oh well. I used to substitute a poptart for fruitake if I did not have any, and glob on the ice-cream. Yumm.

Fruitcake by itself is boring, but with ice-cream melted all over (with whipped cream, sprinkles and hot chocolate fudge) it is transformed into mondo dessert!

Ignore me, it's just the rambling of my fatso past. I can't remember the last time I had ice-cream or fruitcake or hot fudge.

I think fruitcake is the number 1 're-gifted' item in the U.S.

[Trek420]

I choreographed a Christmas show a couple of years back, and in it was a song called "Everlasting Fruitcake". About a fruitcake that wouldn't go away no matter what they did. One of my all time favorite numbers! It was a show put on by 14-18 year olds, and none of them knew what a fruitcake was! I had to make two fake fruitcakes that could be tossed, dropped, etc. I mailed one to the director for Christmas last year, but this thread reminds me that I forgot to mail the second one! Oh well.lol

Oh, and for the record, I think fruitcake is okay. Not great, not nasty, just okay. I wouldn't go out of my way for it.

Like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXe89...eature=related

[smilingcat]

A real fruitcake is worth the weight in gold Sadly though, most so called fruitcake are worth its weight in lead. Not so good eats.

Well made fruitcake will warm your body. Will last a long time as it was meant to be. We preserve fruit of all sorts to make it last the year. To preserve the wonderful taste... A well made fruitcake is no different. The high sugar and alcohol helps to preserve it just as we preserve strawberries, peach, pear, raspberries... And remind us of the bounty of the season.

I care not for the HFCS in the cake. Nor the artificially colored gelatenous goo which are supposed to be some sort of fruit. Give me the real thing. Give me the fruit cake that was when it was made with nature's goodness.

I have plenty of nuts, raisins, dried cranberries... perhaps I will have to make my own. free range fruit cake

in defense of honest fruitcake.
smilingcat

[Zen]

"Paean to the Well Made Fruitcake" by Smilingcat

That's precisely how I feel.
It could be that those who voted no have never had a truly good fruitcake or had some at an age when their palate wasn't quite refined enough to appreciate subtle (and not so subtle) flavors.

[Trek420]

Fruitcake ~ the good bad or evil vs Panettone?

[shootingstar]

Or stollen /kristollen traditionally from Germany, Austria or perhaps Switzerland.

The cake/crumb part is not as heavy as brandy-soaked heavy fruitcakes. Lighter in colour and they don't traditionally use maraschino cherries/overly sweet soaked fruits. It is drier in taste (something like panetonne, but a little more dense) and meant to have a good fine coffee.

Properly made stollen is aged up to 1 month. At least dearie's mom did, before she died.

For past few Christmases we buy from a well-known local artisan European bakery, Thomas Haas. Sample of his other cakes: https://thomashaas.com/page160.htm It is really high-end gourmet fine pastries that is on par with Iron Chef baking. This is what fine European baking is genuinely like.

Haas is originally from Germany, pastry chef training in Black Forest region...same region where dearie's mum came from and where she learned her fine baking.

Haas also is an avid mtbiker and sells cycling shirts (at somewhat high end prices).
But I will try any fruitcake offered to me, particularily if homemade.

Would agree with Zen, that understanding fruitcake and other variants, indeed alot of different desserts, requires over a long time, developing a more refined palate that understands nuances/subtleties in flavour, texture, etc. Before I knew dearie and hence, became exposed to the range of his mother's baking, I had super simplistic palate for baked desserts. At that time, I never understood subtleties of aniseed, hazelnut, etc.

(Now I am picky on quality of croissants, real tortes (vs. fake tortes full of just whipping cream), flans, etc. All this stuff means...I have to bike more!!)

[OakLeaf]

Now I've probably never had the really good stuff, but I think I've had decent stollen, and never really cared for it (or panettone). Too dry, I think, same reason I don't much like Viennese torten.

[Flybye]

Fruitcake is the garden zucchini of December. No one wants it

[salsabike]

Fruitcake is the garden zucchini of December. No one wants it

Now THERE'S some truth-tellin'. Maybe we fruitcake-haters have refined palates for OTHER subtle flavors but we just...plain...don't...like...fruitcake.

[Aggie_Ama]

My husband calls me a fruitcake. So I guess if you like fruitcake its a compliment? I admittedly have never had fruitcake, my Mammaw makes "Heavenly Hash" for Christmas. It is too funny to hear her think everyone is excited about it, some kind of crazy fruit salad dessert.

[malkin]

When it's good it's very very good...


That reminds me...I bought a Christmas pudding before I went to Mexico.