Damn right, it’s better than yours!
Yours is the stuff they make jokes about–terrible gifts, lasting for years, etc.
Mine, however, will show the world that fruitcake is actually really delicious.
Never mind that I’ve never made it before. This is my family’s recipe. I remember how we’d make a batch, months ahead, and stow it in a small trash can with a tight lid–my dad would check in on it periodically, carefully unwrapping it and dribbling more rum or brandy on it. Now no one has made a batch in about 15 years, so we were a little hazy on the details.
It’s basically just enough dense, eggy cake to support an assload of currants, golden raisins and candied orange rind (candied by moi–no off-the-shelf shit here) that were all soaked in brandy and port wine beforehand.
I whipped up a monster batch right before Halloween, and have been dribbling booze on it ever since.
It’s my family’s recipe, sure, but we’re adding a little local Astoria touch–that’s Metaxa 7-star brandy I’ve been using to soak it.
You might get some, if you ask nice and don’t make any jokes.
You want to learn how to make it? Well, I could teach you–but then I’d have to charge.
Looks delicious! I love how you’ve candied your own orange peels. Do you use organic oranges or conventional, and if so, where do you get your organic oranges? I’ve been thinking about doing some citrus rind candying for a while.
I would love to learn how to make good fruitcake. My mom still loves the old recipe with the dayglo candied fruit. Yuck.
Not sure whether I got org or regular oranges for that, but I do regularly buy organic oranges at Key Food. Occasionally seen at Trade Fair, but they’re mega-expansive, and not in good shape, because no one buys organic there. Also got some at Bravo a little while ago.
And the candying is totally easy–I just peeled off the rind with a veg peeler, and sliced up the strips fine, and simmered for a bit in 1:1 (er, or was it 2:1?) water:sugar.
There are a couple of fruitcake recipes in Joy of Cooking that are pretty close to what I use–watch out for the yields, though. They’re massive.
I meant mega-expEnsive. Hee.
Also, I’m talking about the Key Food at 30th Ave–but I think I used to get em at the Ditmars KF also.
Wait, I’m only slowly processing this: your mom _makes_ the bad fruitcake? I honestly thought all that stuff came from various industrial bakeries. I had no idea people actually made it in their homes.
Reasons why this post made me laugh:
1) The obvious–the lyrics.
2) The fact that your family kept the fruitcake in a trashcan.
3) The shroud of Turin. I’m glad you’ve been picking up relics on your travels.
I’m looking forward to seeing if your fruitcake lives up to memories of your family’s. Happy Thanksgiving.
Well, you really do get the shopping opportunities of a lifetime in the Middle East! Who am I to say no? Thanks for the Thanksgiving wishes.
(It was a _clean_ trashcan.)
Well, I think it’s bad. I hate the dayglo fruit and the cake is just too sweet and too dense and just gross. But she likes it. Go figure.
No, you’re right, it _is_ bad, definitively. No cultural relativism allowed on this subject!