Fabulous Friday: Fruitcake Season 84

I was about 10 when my mother started making fruitcakes for the holidays.  She had given up on Clackston, and abbeys for this holiday treat. She continued to make them until she was about 80.  I started baking them a few years before she stopped.  

A fruitcake is a confection of a heavy spice cake with just enough cake to hold together a heavy mix of dried and candied fruits and nuts.  It is important to not expect it to be a cake, it is a distinct confection.  If you think of it as a cake, you will find it heavy and sticky, and not cake like. A fruitcake is a cake, like a pizza is a pie.  

Baking it myself, I can control the spice level, I like lots of Saigon Cinnamon, a little less cloves, and lots of freshly grated nutmeg.  I can control the fruit mix.  I use twice as many raisins as the recipe suggests, and I soak them in good bourbon and dark rum before adding them.  For the candied fruits, I use mostly cherries, because I like cherries.  

Fruit cake is best when it has had time to age.  To age it, you wrap it in cheesecloth, soak it liberally with good booze, bourbon, dark rum, and brandy, seal it in a plastic bag and refrigerate.  I usually soak it, wrap it let is sit in the refrigerator for month, then add more booze, and let it age in the refrigerator for at least another month.  This year's was set to age on October 1st, the first will be ready for Thanksgiving, the second one of Christmas and New Years. I made a couple of small one's this year to give as gifts.