Fruitcake Day

I just pulled from the oven the second (and final) batch of fruitcakes for this year. It's a recipe I got from my mother (Prudence Osborn Dyer) who got it from her mother (Alma E. Osborn), who got it from ... ? Who knows? Probably from some magazine or friend--or maybe even from her mother (Persis Lanterman)? Or maybe it came down from Mt. Olympos via Hermes, who had a message to deliver from the gods ... Try this recipe! it said.

I don't like most fruitcake, not at all. And, of course, we all know that Christmas fruitcake is kind of a cultural joke now. But the one I grew up with? The one you see in the photo? Now that is a different story.

When my mom stopped making them and no longer sent us one, I started doing it myself ... maybe for twenty years now? Plus or minus. I used to make a lot of them, mailed them to family and gave some to friends. But a few years ago, my older brother started making them, too, so I don't need to send them to family any longer.

Also--I don't have the energy I used to, and as you bakers know out there, it takes a bit of effort to do a fruitcake.

This one is a so-called "white" fruitcake--not dark and dank and disappointing. It's very light (though massive in calories! lots of butter, sugar, etc.), so I can't eat a lot of it. At least, that has been my resolve for years and years. It's usually the last resolution of the year I break. Just can't stand it. Have to eat chunks of it!

Not everyone in the family is as crazy about it as I am. My wife, Joyce, loves it, so we generally break our fasts together--feeling, of course, less guilty by doing so. "Just one piece," we say--then, "Just one more piece"--then "We should not have eaten an entire loaf!"

Anyway, Christmas does not seem like Christmas without them. And so I bake them every year, even when I don't really feel like it.

Now ... to find a place for them in the fridge!

PS--I blogged about these last year, too (and the year before), and included the recipe. Here's a link to the recipe.