"fruitcake" news and stories

Fruitcake is the ugly stepchild of Christmas foods. There are some who have learned to love it and there are some that just never will. 47% of people say that they would toss a fruitcake into the trash without even tasting it if they got one as a gift and 11% say that they would simply regift the cake to an unsuspecting friend or relative. With so many unwilling to make time to try to learn to like fruitcake, when you actually do come across a good one, you might not even realize it. Mondo Fruitcake is a blog that is dedicated to reviewing fruitcakes from various sources, evaluating the booziness of each cake, as well as the quality of the ingredients and the flavors.

If 47 of people really are throwing away their fruitcakes, perhaps the Mondo Fruitcake bloggers should start up a P.O. Box where people can ship those unwanted cakes. A fruitcake can last for years when stored properly and that would give them plenty of blogging fodder until next Christmas.

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Back in 1999, an idea was formed when one fruitcake fan was ridiculed for her beliefs by a group of fruitcake-hating coworkers. That idea was to start the Society for the Protection and Preservation of Fruitcake, bringing together those who enjoy the much-maligned holiday food. The founder put her recipe online and the cause has been gaining momentum - slowly, but steadily - ever since.

The SPPF is a non-membership organization, so there are no meetings, dues or group fruitcake swaps, but on their website, you will find the founder's recipe which seems to make at least 14 pounds of fruitcake (5 large loaf pans and 8 one pound loaf pans), links to the recipes from other supporters of the SPPF and links to lots of other fruitcake loving websites.

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Favorite Fruitcakes: Favorite Fruitcakes: Recipes, Legends, and Lore from the World's Best Cooks and Eaters, as you might expect, is not a large book. It contains about 35 recipes for fruitcakes of various kinds, all of which are similar enough to bear the name, though the recipes come from different cooking traditions. The book is dotted with stories from many well-known and well-liked chef/authors, including Julia Child and James Beard, providing a little levity in a dense subject.

Clearly, the book is a good one for those who like fruitcake, but it is appropriate for others, as well. If you have never had a fruitcake, for example, these recipes are sound ones to start with. The book also makes a wonderful gift - and by wonderful, I mean amusing - for foodie friends who don't like the cake. Not only will you get to see the look on their face as they unwrap a book devoted to the stuff, but they will end up enjoying the writing on the subject, if not the cake itself.

And as I mentioned Julia's fruitcake, you can find her recipe (or one of them) here.

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We all know the jokes that are made every year when it comes to fruitcake. The same one has been going around the globe, passed from person to person, for the past 40 years, nobody likes fruitcake, fruitcake is a bad gift, etc. But let's talk about food beyond that cliche. What are some of the usual Christmas foods that you don't like or are overrated? What food does your family serve when you go back home and you dread it, even though you don't want to tell the person who cooked it that you've never liked it?

They say that fruitcakes improve with age, but that may just be an excuse that non-fruitcake lovers have come up with to avoid eating them. Lance Nesta, a man in Wisconsin, found a 44-year old fruitcake in his mother's attic while cleaning out the house. The cake was shipped to him as a taste of home by his mother and aunt in 1962 while he was in the military and stationed in Alaska. He didn't want the cake (and neither did his military buddies), so he brought it home with him.

It seems like he just should have thrown it away, rather than carrying it all the way back home, if he wasn't going to eat it. Waste not, want not, I guess.... but if you don't want the cake when it's fresh, are you really going to want it after 44 years?

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