Fruitcake

I am of fruitcake eating peoples. We always had one in the house at Christmas, though it came in a tin. I'm fairly certain my mother ordered it from the same place each year as she had a collection of the blue and white tins each embossed with a winter scene and the year it wished to commemorate. The tins were intended to be kept (I've always saved cookie and cake tins regardless of intention-what else do people do for sewing boxes?) and I still have a couple in service though the label indicating brand and ingredients has long peeled away.

It was good fruitcake. I couldn't eat the pecans (nut allergy) so my mother would pick them out of my piece before serving (that wouldn't be adequate today I'm afraid as my allergy has grown worse rather than better with age) but it didn't lessen my enjoyment of the cake. In fact, it was one of the very few sweets we were permitted. You couldn't eat much of it, being so heavy, though I suspect that made it all the more special-something to savour in small bits. I seem to recall it contained a fair amount of brandy though I have no idea if my mother was (as the saying goes) "moistening" it (pouring booze into it).

I'm less enchanted by the cakes as an adult. I'm sure that it's just a matter of being able to eat whatever I please, and not needing to wait all year for something palatable to pass my lips. I'd just assume skip the cake and go straight for the brandy. My husband however, being Scottish, likes his fruitcake so every year I make one-for his birthday in January. We don't mind having our fruitcake when others are taking down their trees, and it really is something to look forward to after the holiday season.

I'll be making mine a bit early this year (though the cake does well to "ripen" for a few weeks anyway) as we're expecting horrible weather (ice storm) and I will be trapped in the house all weekend (they do not treat the county roads as well as they ought to). What better time than to bake-up a storm?

I ran across THIS recipe from my very favourite home economist in the world, Marguerite Patten. I'm tempted to make it in place of my usual fruitcake as it does sound wonderful and I trust her recipes. I also by chance have an unopened jar of Golden Syrup on hand (I thought Danny might like farls, but I never got around to baking them). Mine uses applesauce for moisture, but I don't really think it would suffer without it. HERE's the cake I usually make.

I'm also planning to make a Christmas pudding which will need ripening time. I may well be on the edge of over-doing it but I'd like to make stollen as well. Since I'm giving home-baked goods this year, I have an excuse for trying out all these new recipes of old favourites. Oh, and the mincemeat-Lord knows I have quite a bit of that.

Now that I think of it, I'm sort of looking forward to the inclement weather.