S/o egg nog thread- how about fruitcake?

I love my mom’s recipe. I once took a small piece made by a coworker for our holiday potluck. It was horrible. Dry and with a weird flavor. I couldn’t choke it down. I ended up doing the trick I had done all of my life to get rid of food that I didn’t want to eat.

My parents raised us to eat everything on our plate at mealtime. We were allowed to dish up our own plate so they felt if you took it, you ate it. I was not a big eater and usually just put a spoon or two of the foods I wanted, knowing I could always go back for more if I wanted more. In order to get up from the table, we had to ask to be excused. My father’s seat at the table was directly across from the entrance to the kitchen and he would look at our plates to see if we finished everything as we walked past him. My sisters would scrape the food they didn’t want to eat into a pile and put their napkin over it, hoping to fool my dad. Dad was no dummy and he would tell them to lift the napkin to show him the whole supposedly empty plate. Of course Dad would see their scrap pile and make them return to the table to finish it. And by then, the food was in an unappealing blob.

It didn’t happen to me very often since I took such small portions, but I would occasionally have something that I couldn’t eat so my trick was to carefully transfer it to the napkin on my lap. I would then carefully lift the napkin and crumple it up, making it look just like a used napkin. Then when walking past Dad, he would ask to see under my napkin. I would happily pick up the 20-pound napkin filled with food and show him my empty plate. I did that for years and no one in my family ever caught on.

So at the company potluck, I quietly pretended to eat the fruitcake while breaking off little pieces and placing them onto my napkin on my lap. Of course no one was going to check my plate, but I did not want to offend the person who brought the cake to the party. I admit, I had to bite my cheeks to keep from giggling at how ridiculous I was, reverting to my childhood trick of hiding the food I couldn’t eat.

And I never took anyone’s fruitcake from that day forward.

I love it and make it too 😀

Fruit cake as in dark, rich fruit cake Christmas cake? I absolutely love it, even more so if it’s covered in marzipan and icing. A slice of that, some blue cheese and a glass of red wine - delicious.

My in-laws are British, so I had my first mince pie, Christmas pudding and Dundee cake as an adult. I happily eat all 3 and love them all.

I haven't ever had anything that is called a fruit cake, but I'm pretty sure it's what my mil makes and she calls it a Dundee Cake. It is covered in marzipan and icing.

I LOVE Pee Wee Herman's Christmas special when everyone brings him a fruit cake and he builds a wall with them.😁

ick. and ick again. 

I don't like dried fruit in anything (unless it's raisins in certain types of cold cereal), so having a cake basically made of all dried fruit... nope nope nopety nope. 

The fruit shouldn't be dried when it's in the cake, it should have soaked up loads of alcohol and become plump and juicy. 

Dundee Cake is not a rich fruit cake like a Christmas Cake, it is more of a sultana cake and has a pattern of almonds on the top so it's recognisable as what it is.  

The icing on a rich fruit cake isn't normally frosting, it's Royal Icing which sets hard.  

This is what I know as fruitcake. No marzipan or icing in sight. And even if the fruit has soaked up alcohol it's still dried fruit.    Just give me a glass of whatever the alcohol is and leave off the fruitcake part.

Just like with eggnog, I'm not a big fan of fruitcake, either, but DH loves it. But it has to be a dark one. 

Jen

I love a good fruitcake, my mum made great Christmas cakes. When I made my own I got her to send me the recipe. She sent it and then I had to check every ingredient and instruction. Typical of a baker who has been baking for years and thinks you will understand vague info!

I like fruitcake if it has no or very little citron in it. If it has a lot I won’t eat more than a bite I rarely eat it, as I don’t buy it and everyone that used to make it has passed on.

Love a good dark fruitcake with almond marzipan icing. IMHO, my Mom made the best, but our grocery store has a pretty good one each year and I either buy one for myself (small but expensive) or my DD gifts me one. She knows I love it.

Now I'm thinking about it, I want it now!

No frosting or marzipan on what I know as a fruit cake.

The ONLY fruit cake I will eat is from the Collin Street Bakery. I pick off the bizarre fruits.
The bakery also sells a pecan/apricot cake that I like.

collinstreet.com/?

I love a good fruitcake, but only if made with pecans instead of walnuts. Walnuts give me canker sores so they are a big “no.”