| As a child, while visions of sugar plums danced in the | | | | and banned the fruit cake! I suspect they were correct |
| heads of children around the world on Christmas eve, I | | | | on that decision. A good fruitcake is so delicious it is |
| dreamed of candied orange peel, candied lemon peel, | | | | almost a sin to enjoy it as much as I do. Thankfully it's |
| candied citron, candied cherries, raisins, ginger, chopped | | | | not banned in Alabama. |
| walnuts, chopped pecans, grated lemon rind, brandy, | | | | As to the decadence of the fruitcake, a rumor that |
| vanilla cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, mixed into a batter | | | | has lasted for a couple of centuries, reveal that Queen |
| made of baking powder, flour, sugar and eggs. I | | | | Victoria received a fruitcake for her birthday one year |
| remember watching mom mixing these ingredients | | | | but waited another year to eat it. She wanted to show |
| together to make the perfect fruit cake! | | | | that the elite could show restraint and good taste while |
| From the time when I was a mere child, and | | | | enjoying in moderation such a tasty treat. This restraint |
| discovered that Christmas was really all about eating, I | | | | has unfortunately followed her to this century for |
| was addicted to fruitcake. To me, nothing epitomized | | | | many folks decry the virtues of the noble fruitcake! |
| the meaning of Christmas like that of my mother's | | | | Not everyone has been enamored of the fruitcake as |
| fruitcakes that she made from scratch. This was of | | | | I have been. Over the years people have made jokes |
| course before I knew that Christmas was really a | | | | about them that have not really been in good taste, but |
| celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ some 2000 plus | | | | then good taste is not something that is in abundance |
| years ago. Until that time, the success of my | | | | in our society. Bad jokes about the fruitcake have |
| Christmas depended on whether my mother had felt | | | | been around for years. Everyone has heard the one |
| like baking the cake a month before. | | | | liners concerning this wonderful cake: |
| I often wondered why she would make a cake in | | | | 'Fruitcakes make good door stops.' |
| November only to cut into it a month later in | | | | 'Fruitcakes make good weights on a grandfather |
| December. As I was growing up I learned that she | | | | clock.' |
| would soak a cloth in my wayward uncle's whiskey | | | | 'Fruitcakes make good Christmas wreaths.' |
| that she'd would pilfer while he was asleep, soak a | | | | 'Fruitcakes make good Curling stones.' |
| cloth with the brandy or whatever spirits he was | | | | 'There is really only one fruitcake; it's just been passed |
| consuming at the time, and insert it in the center of the | | | | around for hundreds of years' |
| fruitcake which was baked in a bunt pan. The whiskey | | | | There's no accounting for bad taste. These and other |
| would soak into the cake, giving it a tang that couldn't | | | | jokes have made a mockery of the awesome |
| be made any other way. | | | | fruitcake. |
| Fruitcake addiction hasn't been limited to me. History | | | | While commercial bakeries do indeed make excellent |
| tells us in the early 1800's, fruitcake, then called plum | | | | fruitcakes, I still wish I could taste one like my mother |
| cake, was outlawed throughout continental Europe. It | | | | used to make when I was a kid. I am making this my |
| seems that the powers that be back then thought the | | | | one big mission in life... searching for the perfect |
| cake was so good it just had to be sinful. Since | | | | fruitcake! |
| flagrant sinning was a no-no, Royalty put its foot down | | | | |