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New Holiday Poll: Fruitcake

Discussion in 'General Chat Forum' started by Carol Al-Ajroush, Dec 19, 2004.

  1. Carol Al-Ajroush

    Carol Al-Ajroush New Member

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    Okay, how many actually like fruitcake? And if so, what are your favorites?

    And for those that do not like it, why not?
     
  2. Dutchml

    Dutchml Member

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    There is actually only one fruitcake in existence on the planet and it has been re-gifted to just about everyone currently alive. It has become quite stale.
     
  3. christinaandrob

    christinaandrob New Member

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    I actually got a clever gift last year! As a joke, someone from my office took a fruitcake and re-wrapped it 10 times. Each time the wrapped it, they put a different gift label on it with a date. So the last wrapping was dated back to 1972. It was quite comical!

    Personally, I've never seen anyone actually eat fruitcake. I'm with Dutchml - there's only 1! ;)
     
  4. SK8R

    SK8R On the Clover Meadow

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    I do not like fruitcake because I do not like that candied "froot" that tastes like plastic sugar!
    When I was a kid, my mom and dad loved fruit cake and I used to pick the nuts and cake portion out and only eat that part. I would leave the "froot" part, icky.
     
  5. glockenspiel

    glockenspiel Member

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  6. L0stS0ul

    L0stS0ul hmmmm

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    I personally don't like it either. There is only one person in my entire life that I have known to like it. That would be my wife's dad. Every year his mom makes him a fruit cake just for him.
     
  7. Carol Al-Ajroush

    Carol Al-Ajroush New Member

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    My spouse had one last year for the first time in his life and I guess he is one of the few who love it. When I told him he was in the minority and most Americans really do not like fruitcakes, he was shocked.
     
  8. boomertsfx

    boomertsfx Booyakasha!

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    I think it's big in Germany and other parts of europe. I got some Marzipan Stollen (I guess it's like fruitcake) from World Market the other day and love it... mmmmm. I love the variety of food goodies you can get there!
     
  9. gammonbabe

    gammonbabe New Member

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    American fruitcake is okay.

    German christmas stollen is kind of a fruitcake, but not as heavy. It is the best, comes either with or without marcipan/persipan filling. I brought a bunch of them with me when I came back from vacation in October, they are just right now. :)

    Marianne
     
  10. jaeris

    jaeris New Member

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    British fruitcake is much better than the US version which is too sickly sweet . It's made of currants, raisins, flour, spices, candied peel and most importantly brandy. The cake usually made about 1 month before Christmas and kept in an airtight tin. Holes are punched in it with a knitting needle and brandy is poured in during this time. Right before Christmas it's covered in marzipan and then royal icing. You can't eat that much of it - very rich but very good. It's also the traditional recipe for wedding cakes in the UK and pieces of it are mailed in specially made boxes to guests who couldn't attend the wedding.

    jaeris
     
  11. boomertsfx

    boomertsfx Booyakasha!

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    I lub marzipan!! mmm
     
  12. SK8R

    SK8R On the Clover Meadow

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    My mom makes these goodies with puff pastry a recipe from the Netherlands called Banket. A long puff roll with marsipan in it. I am the only kid in the family that likes it and eats it. She makes one for each of our families and I end up taking it all home because no one else wants theirs. My daughter likes it. Tons of calories though...
     
  13. Azsweepay

    Azsweepay New Member

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    When it comes to Fruitcake, I feel blessed that I have Celiacs Disease!

    Gregg
     
  14. Carol Al-Ajroush

    Carol Al-Ajroush New Member

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    My husband is happy as a clam....my son and daughter-in-law presented him with a fruitcake for Christmas! :)
     
  15. Barbara

    Barbara New Member

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    Dear Carol: I have a nice recipe for fruitcake that calls for 3 C brazil nuts, 2C whole dates, and one cup maraschino cherries. I'd be happy to share for your husband if you like, makes one 3-lb cake (loaf). I also have a five and a seven lb recipe, one for dark fruitcake if he turns into a real fruitcake hardcore. Let me know!

    Barbara Munsey, from South Riding.
     
  16. Carol Al-Ajroush

    Carol Al-Ajroush New Member

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    Barbara,

    I'd love to have your recipes! They sound delicious! :)

     
  17. Barbara

    Barbara New Member

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    Here goes, Carol: BRAZIL NUT SENSATION

    Preheat oven to 300. Grease 9" by 5" loaf pan, then line with heavy foil.

    In large bowl, combine 3 cups Brazil nuts, 2 cups whole pitted dates, and 1 cup drained maraschino cherries. In small bowl, combine 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, 3/4 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon double-acting baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add dry ingredients to fruit and nut mixture, and stir well to coat all.

    In small bowl with mixer, beat 3 eggs with 1/2 teaspoon vanilla until foamy. Pour into fruit/nut/flour mixture and mix well until batter formed coats all. Pour into pan and level top.

    Bake 2 1/2 hours or until toothpick in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack 15 minutes. Turn out cake, peel off foil, and cool completely on rack. Wrap well and refrigerate. Keeps several weeks.

    Some notes: The pan will look odd--you'll have a pile of fruit and nuts that reaches nearly to the top, with very sparse sticky batter that falls well below the level of the fruit and nut pile. During baking, it will rise up through it to the bottom of the top layer, and pretty much just stick it all together. The top of the cake when done will have whole nuts, dates, and cherries just adhered to the brick. The toothpick has a heck of a time finding connective tissue to test!

    If I'm making it for anyone who likes a soaked fruitcake, a week or so before baking, I drain the cherries and replace the liquid with a good black rum like Myer's or Black Seal, and put it in the back of the fridge. Drain before baking and reserve the rum in the jar in the fridge. Then after cake is cool, pour reserved rum plus as much as needed into a small bowl and wring out a piece of muslin, cheesecloth, or very light cotton flannel (no nap or fluff) in the liquor until thoroughly damp but not soppy wet. Moisten hands with rum in bowl and lightly moisten entire surface of cake. Set cake in center of damp cloth and wrap firmly, like a package, and then repeat with a sheet of heavy foil to thoroughly wrap cake, keeping rum cloth in contact with all of surface. Put in fridge and check every three or four days, and repeat moistening of cloth as needed/desired. After a week or so of this, a very moist and happy cake results. Some prefer brandy, but I like a strongly flavorful rum with the fruits. Enjoy!

    I'll sign off for now, but be back with the 5 and 7 pounders!
    p.s.--I couldn't resist a t-shirt at Target while Christmas shopping: bright red, with large white block letters on chest that read "FRUITCAKE", and in smaller letters below, "Warning: Contains Nuts". I must say it got me through some holiday gatherings with a smile on my face! They may have some left at clearance for any other "fruitcakes" or lovers of same!

    Barbara Munsey, from South Riding.
     
  18. Barbara

    Barbara New Member

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    P.S: I forgot to warn about the durn nuts: two bags of whole nuts will provide the meats necessary, and are much more economical to buy in bulk. However, they are a royal pain to crack. Freeze the nuts for several days! I keep them in the freezer while cracking a few at a time at the kitchen island. Even with a good cracker it kills my hands, until this year I got my Irish up and borrowed my son's six-oz claw hammer. A good tap on the apex to crack, followed by lateral taps on the bottom panel often resulted in a total shattering of the shell, leaving behind a gleaming whole nut. Very quick and easy, very atavistically satisfying (cook with hammers!) but lots of flying Brazil nut shrapnel. The upside to that was that my family had reason to heed "stay out of my kitchen!" ;)

    Barbara Munsey, from South Riding.
     
  19. SK8R

    SK8R On the Clover Meadow

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    :-D
    cooking with hammers
     

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