TXMary
Pearl Clutcher
And so many nights I just dream of the ocean. God, I wish I was sailin' again.
Posts: 3,410 
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Post by TXMary on Dec 3, 2023 16:52:05 GMT
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 wouldn't touch fruit cake with a 10-foot pole. My mom used to order a Collin Street Bakery one every year to ship to my aunt in PA. She loved them. |
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Post by monklady123 on Dec 3, 2023 16:54:50 GMT
gillyp -- Those marzipan/iced ones look delicious. However, if I sliced into it and discovered fruitcake I would be very disappointed. lol. And, I've never seen a fruitcake like that in the States. Ours are just plain.
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Post by monklady123 on Dec 3, 2023 16:58:50 GMT
I especially love marzipan, although I know am in the minority. Quality dried fruit isn't dead dried. The apricots should still have some moisture and so should the other fruits. I learned how to make my own "dried fruit" for fruitcake and it isn't dry at all. Then after it is soaked for a few days in apricot brandy and rum, the fruit re-plums itself and is truly delicious. Homemade is the only way to go. Afterwards, the weekly addition of a rotation of alcohol ~ peach brandy, Cuban dark rum, regular brandy and spiced rum - with the fruitcake in the tin it was baked in, with the heavy paper that was removed and then put back in the tin, only with cheesecloth between the cake and the paper which allows the booze to soak into the cake. Delicious. A reason that many Americans don't like fruitcake is that it isn't a sweet cake. Americans love sugar and super sweet desserts. Fruitcake is meant to be eaten with a good cup of coffee or tea, savouring the delicious bites of this treat.
I soak my fruit in mid September and bake the cakes in late September. I use quality cookie tins with the 2 layers of buttered brown paper. Please try the real and authentic fruitcake. Not the dried out stuff that most supermarkets sell. I don't think that's necessarily true. I suspect the real reason so many of us detest fruit cake is that we've never had a good one. From reading this thread I don't think most of us have ever had the real thing.  |
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Post by ntsf on Dec 3, 2023 17:04:53 GMT
I only eat the fruitcake I make with my family recipe. I don't like any others.. it has no icing, has no alcohol,.. dark cake batter, with mostly fruit.. little cake. the recipe is so old you can't get some of the original ingredients. it has lots of raisins, currents, dates, three kinds of sweet fruitcake fruits, and coffee and juice in the cake batter.
my dad loved it so much, he would eat one thin slice a day and make the two loaves last til march.
so my own--great. others.. no way.
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Post by gillyp on Dec 3, 2023 17:27:45 GMT
gillyp -- Those marzipan/iced ones look delicious. However, if I sliced into it and discovered fruitcake I would be very disappointed. lol. And, I've never seen a fruitcake like that in the States. Ours are just plain. A question for you then - what would your grandmother and relatives before her have had as a wedding cake? An iced, marzipan-ed rich fruit cake was pretty much standard as a wedding cake here until a few decades ago when various sponge cakes started to be used. The fruit cake can be safely kept if wrapped correctly so traditionally the top tier of the wedding cake would be put aside and kept until it was used as a christening cake for the first child. Fruit cake could be cut up and posted in small boxes to people who were unable to attend the wedding and it would keep well on the journey. |
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sueg
Prolific Pea
Posts: 9,140
Location: Munich
Apr 12, 2016 12:51:01 GMT
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Post by sueg on Dec 3, 2023 17:34:21 GMT
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/?We were given one of these once. It was the worst fruitcake I have ever had. If this is what most Americans think of when asked about fruitcake, I am not surprised most of them say they don't like it. |
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Post by Linda on Dec 3, 2023 17:45:32 GMT
I love a traditional Christmas cake with the royal icing and a layer of marzipan - I also love the traditional wedding cakes - I have no idea if my parents was a fruit cake or a sponge. They married in England but mum was American and did the majority of the planning and irc, she wasn't a fruit cake fan so probably a sponge cake. My older sister had a traditional cake for her first wedding though.
I'll be the oddball and say that I also like American "fruitcake" - it's not the same thing by far but it can still be good. I have had a few dreadful ones though.
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Post by monklady123 on Dec 3, 2023 17:55:49 GMT
gillyp -- Those marzipan/iced ones look delicious. However, if I sliced into it and discovered fruitcake I would be very disappointed. lol. And, I've never seen a fruitcake like that in the States. Ours are just plain. A question for you then - what would your grandmother and relatives before her have had as a wedding cake? An iced, marzipan-ed rich fruit cake was pretty much standard as a wedding cake here until a few decades ago when various sponge cakes started to be used. The fruit cake can be safely kept if wrapped correctly so traditionally the top tier of the wedding cake would be put aside and kept until it was used as a christening cake for the first child. Fruit cake could be cut up and posted in small boxes to people who were unable to attend the wedding and it would keep well on the journey. To be honest, I have no idea! lol. I thought that layer cakes (what you call "sponge" I think) were standard wedding cakes. |
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Rhondito
Pearl Clutcher
MississipPea
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Post by Rhondito on Dec 3, 2023 17:56:45 GMT
My mom makes the best icebox fruitcake. It doesn't have any kind of icing on it.
We haven't been able to find dried fruit this year. She's looked in the grocery stores where she lives two hours away and I've looked at the stores here in my town.
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Ryann
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Love is Inclusive
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Location: PNW
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Post by Ryann on Dec 3, 2023 18:08:49 GMT
I’ve never eaten fruitcake, but I don’t think I’ve ever been in the same room as one, either.
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carhoch
Pearl Clutcher
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Post by carhoch on Dec 3, 2023 18:13:36 GMT
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Post by 950nancy on Dec 3, 2023 18:38:32 GMT
If I am going to eat something sweet, I'd rather it taste better for the calories being consumed. Like a margarita...
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Post by SweetieBugs on Dec 3, 2023 18:53:13 GMT
Can peas post what they consider good recipes?? I'd love to see what makes a good fruit cake.
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sueg
Prolific Pea
Posts: 9,140
Location: Munich
Apr 12, 2016 12:51:01 GMT
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Post by sueg on Dec 3, 2023 18:55:06 GMT
Can peas post what they consider good recipes?? I'd love to see what makes a good fruit cake. has already started a thread for fruitcake recipes and I have posted mine there. Check it out. |
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Post by malibou on Dec 3, 2023 18:59:07 GMT
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. Wait, Dundee cake is supposed to have a pretty almond pattern? That never happened. 🙁 There are definitely sultanas in my mil cake, but there is also cherries and pineapple and all are soaked in alcohol. The cake is light coloured and definitely not what I would call rich, I would call it dry. 😂 And thus I am thankful for the marzipan and the "crunchy" icing. Me thinks I've been tricked. And I think I want to try a rich Christmas cake. What about the steamed Christmas pudding she makes every year? It has loads of alcohol soaked fruit, and it's dark and moist and it gets steamed and there's brandy sauce. Is that a real thing? I guess if I like it I shouldn't worry too much. She's 92 and I don't see anyone in the family continuing the tradition of fake Dundee cake or Christmas pudding. I'm the only one besides her that likes it. |
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Post by Scrappyhappy on Dec 3, 2023 20:03:17 GMT
My grandma made an excellent fruit cake in a loaf pan. Sadly she passed, no one in the family has the recipe. I used to love to toast it in the toaster oven, then add some butter. Yum!
I don't care for store bought fruit cake.
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Post by gillyp on Dec 3, 2023 22:10:18 GMT
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. Wait, Dundee cake is supposed to have a pretty almond pattern? That never happened. 🙁 There are definitely sultanas in my mil cake, but there is also cherries and pineapple and all are soaked in alcohol. The cake is light coloured and definitely not what I would call rich, I would call it dry. 😂 And thus I am thankful for the marzipan and the "crunchy" icing. Me thinks I've been tricked. And I think I want to try a rich Christmas cake. What about the steamed Christmas pudding she makes every year? It has loads of alcohol soaked fruit, and it's dark and moist and it gets steamed and there's brandy sauce. Is that a real thing? I guess if I like it I shouldn't worry too much. She's 92 and I don't see anyone in the family continuing the tradition of fake Dundee cake or Christmas pudding. I'm the only one besides her that likes it. Steamed Christmas pudding is definitely a thing. The grandkids and I made a couple a few weeks ago and they are tightly wrapped, and bring fed with alcohol every week until they get eaten on Christmas Day. The puddings, not the grandkids. My youngest granddaughter said a couple of years ago “Nana’s Christmas pudding is the best, I won’t eat anyone else’s”. We tend to have it with a flavoured thick cream or brandy sauce or custard or ice cream. Occasionally I’ll flame it with brandy. Traditionally silver charms were cooked inside the pudding and if you get the ring in your portion you’d be married in the year, a sixpence meant you’d come into money and so on. I don’t recall what the others were. Strictly speaking a Dundee cake doesn’t have alcohol or pineapple and it certainly doesn’t have marzipan or icing. It has orange marmalade in it. As long as it tastes good it doesn’t really matter. |
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Post by malibou on Dec 3, 2023 23:41:18 GMT
gillyp, I'm trying to decide if I should share this info with dh. 😁🤔 His mom makes an extra pseudo Dundee cake every year for his birthday in June. Honestly, he would likely prefer a real Dundee cake, or a real Christmas Cake to the Dundee/Christmas hybrid!
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Post by gillyp on Dec 4, 2023 1:01:33 GMT
I think I’d keep quiet! Maybe you could bake the “new” recipes for other occasions?
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janeinbama
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,257
Location: Alabama
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Post by janeinbama on Dec 4, 2023 1:10:26 GMT
I had wanted to make fruitcake cookies this year. My husband was like eh, I would rather have Mama’s fruitcake. She made this when DH was a kid for sale . She sold about 500 pounds a year. DH and his brothers, dad had to cut up the fruit and nuts. The boys slept in the living room as their bedroom was full of fruitcakes! So I text my BILto see if he likes fruitcakes. He calls me and he too waxes poetically about these fruitcakes. He said she sold them for $1.25 per pound in the 50’s. It cost me $8.50 a pound to make..
So I cut cut the recipe in half (15 pounds) and will be sharing with him. DH helped cut up fruits and nuts, stirred it. If nothing else I have made two old men very happy. Oldest brother is deceased, I imagine he would have had the same reaction. I plan to taste it.
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moodyblue
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Jun 26, 2014 21:07:23 GMT
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Post by moodyblue on Dec 4, 2023 4:09:20 GMT
I don’t think I’d like the fruit cakes with the marzipan and icing; I don’t like royal icing.
I’ve had some lousy fruitcakes and some that were decent, although it’s not usually something I’d choose. My mother-in-law made a good dark one, but hers had a lot of nuts in it along with fruit, and I liked her version the best of any I've had.
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Deleted
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Aug 18, 2025 21:05:47 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2023 11:56:40 GMT
I don’t like citron or rum, but I like the spices, fruits and nuts of homemade fruitcake. Harry and David used to make a good one. Not sure if they still do.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Aug 18, 2025 21:05:47 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Dec 4, 2023 11:59:03 GMT
I only eat the fruitcake I make with my family recipe. I don't like any others.. it has no icing, has no alcohol,.. dark cake batter, with mostly fruit.. little cake. the recipe is so old you can't get some of the original ingredients. it has lots of raisins, currents, dates, three kinds of sweet fruitcake fruits, and coffee and juice in the cake batter. my dad loved it so much, he would eat one thin slice a day and make the two loaves last til march. so my own--great. others.. no way. I would love to try it if you are sharing the recipe… |
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Post by jennyap on Dec 4, 2023 13:50:54 GMT
gillyp , I'm trying to decide if I should share this info with dh. 😁🤔 His mom makes an extra pseudo Dundee cake every year for his birthday in June. Honestly, he would likely prefer a real Dundee cake, or a real Christmas Cake to the Dundee/Christmas hybrid! I haven't personally tried this recipe, but the comments are reasonably good, if you want to make him a real one! www.daringgourmet.com/dundee-cake/ |
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Post by malibou on Dec 4, 2023 23:16:09 GMT
jennyap, thank you. I think I can pull this off. I'll pick up the proper orange marmalade while I'm here and I will get my sultanas here too. This will be a fun surprise.
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