Good morning !
I have noticed many social media post of Christmas baking lately , it all looks so delicious and creative.
The usual goodies I’m seeing are cookies, breads , cakes , pies and chocolate creations but no Fruitcake , is it that no one eats it anymore ? or no one bakes it ?
As a kid at Christmas , our house always had a couple Fruitcake, one for the kids and one for the adults. I could never understand why Mom & Dad had their own fruitcake until they told us that theirs had alcohol in it , by the smell of it , it had plenty !
Love it or hate it, you have to admit: That stuff lasts forever. I found a story of an Ohio family has kept the same fruitcake uneaten (except for periodic taste tests) since it was baked in 1878.
I also discovered that in Antarctica, a fruitcake discovered in artifacts left by explorer Robert Falcon Scott’s 1910 expedition remains “almost edible,” according to the researchers who found it.
So what is it that makes that stuff last so long? Well, for one thing, fruitcake is notoriously dense. It’s packed full of already-preserved foods, like dried and candied nuts and fruit. That keeps bacteria from developing. Oh, and just like I mentioned before it contains a fair amount booze .
I am told that a good fruitcake involves plenty of alcohol. Immediately after a fruitcake cools, most bakers wrap it in a cheesecloth soaked in liquor and store it in an airtight container. This keeps mold and yeast away and keeps the cake deliciously moist. In fact, many say that like fine wine, fruitcake tastes better as it ages. The catch is that you should ‘feed’ it once a week. With what? More alcohol . If it is not frozen, brush it with whatever alcohol you’ve chosen (brandy and rum are popular choices) every few days.
If you want a recipe for Fruitcake CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO
For another recipe using spiced rum CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO