I made a fruitcake for Christmas this year. And I spent a lot of time trying to convince Lawson that it wasn't going to be gross. He was dubious...I guess he ate a lot of dry fruitcake packed with green candied cherries when he was a kid. I, on the other hand, ate a lot of tasty homemade and Collin Street fruitcake, so I have mostly good associations, its cultural status notwithstanding.
Making it was fun. I soaked tons of dried fruit in brandy, and made a delicious dark cake with the fruit, some nuts, and more brandy. I then wrapped it and put it away for a week to age. A few days before Christmas I tried a little, and it was tasty but a tad dry, so I soaked it with more brandy -- still less than the maximum amount the recipe allowed, mind you. But it got a little too boozy and fruity.
So I'm sad to report my fruitcake is a tiny bit gross. Maybe it needs to mellow more. It's a little too moist now, and it falls apart, and the booze isn't altogether pleasant. It tastes like fermented fruit in dough. So I guess I'll put it away again and try it next month.
1 comment:
I had a similar experience--applying booze to a slightly dry fruitcake--but I can't remember what happened!
No, seriously,fruitcake is a science and an art. I have had some turn out wonderfully, and some that went the other way, which I tried unsucessfully to rescue with brandy.
I will be very interested to hear about your fruitcake in a month or two. It looked very handsome in your photograph.
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