Fruitcake

I'll admit it--I LOVE fruitcake. Yeah, I know all the jokes. There's only one fruitcake in the world, it just keeps getting re-gifted. The only good use for a fruitcake is as a bookend or a car jack, or whatever. I come by my love for fruitcake naturally--I inherited it from my mother, who inherited it from her mother. Others in the family have also inherited a taste for this delicious Christmas treat.

I'll also admit that it's hard to find a good fruitcake. The ones they sell in the stores are gross. So every year I make one. Butter, sugar, a little flour, six eggs and LOTS of fruit (which I buy after Christmas on clearance and stash in the freezer), lots of nuts and some whiskey. It bakes in the oven for two hours and then cures for two weeks on the counter in a stainless steel pot to soak up the brandy that gets poured over it after it bakes.
After two weeks, I take the fruitcake out of the pot and divide it into quarters. I wrap the pieces in festive green plastic wrap and ribbon and put them in the refrigerator until Christmas Eve when they get distributed to my family members who also love fruitcake.

Elizabeth helped me make the fruitcake for this Christmas today. She carefully arranged and rearranged the candied cherries and nuts to make a pretty design on the top of the cake. Something tells me she may have inherited the love of fruitcake, too. Maybe someday I'll make a non-alcoholic kiddie version, but for now it'll remain an adults only treat (and only those adults who can claim that they absolutely LOVE fruitcake).