Totally OUTRAGEOUS

Oh my God. You've just GOT to take a look at this.

Glorious Fruitcake Gifts


This is the best fruitcake selection I've seen yet. Buy some for yourslef, be sure to get cakes for all your friends, share a BIG fruitcake at the office. Give fruitcake samples to your clients.

There are cakes from Harry and David, Liberty Orchards, Hale Groves and yes ... the frater making Monks have a Monastery Bakery Sampler just for you.

If your mouth isn't watering, there is something SERIOUSLY wrong with you.


CLICK HERE for Glorious Fruitcake Gifts

No Time to Bake?

If you don't have time to bake, check out the World Famous Claxton Fruit cake!

It is available in one pound to 10 pound sizes and can be shipped to all your friends with a gift card enclosure.


Sun-ripened raisins, delicious pineapple, crunchy Georgia pecans, plump juicy cherries, California walnuts and almonds, tangy lemon and orange peel....blended into a rich pound-cake batter....baked to a golden brown.

Welcome to the world of Claxton Fruit Cake.Known the world over for old-fashioned goodness and traditional holiday appeal, Claxton Fruit Cake is the "Quality Choice of Millions Since 1910."

Fruitcake ships fresh year round.

While you are there, be sure to check out the recipes USING Claxton Fruitcake as one of the ingredients ... like the Claxton Gourmet Cookie recipe. Talk about decadent.


CLICK HERE to go to the Gift Warehouse

BEST FRUITCAKE RECIPE from Ellen's Kitchen

Ok I found this recipe and it seems to me to be a very good one!! Try it out send me a message telling me how it turned out and pictures too!!

The Best Fruitcake

Traditionally, you use whiskey, brandy, or rum. You need about 3 cups. You can use fruit juice, such as white grape juice, but the cake should be stored in the refrigerator if you do not use liquor. Use the best you can afford and use the same for the entire ripening.

Start at least a month before you plan to eat it, so it can ripen, and a day before you plan to bake. The texture is rich and light because you NEVER press the batter down into the pan, and you ALWAYS line and grease the pans and put a large flat pan of boiling water on the floor of the oven at the bottom rack for the entire baking period, refilling as needed.


Dice small and mix well:
4 oz glaceed lemon peel
4 oz glaceed orange peel
4 oz glaceed or soft dried apricots (replaces citron)
4 oz walnuts
4 oz pecans
8 oz cherries
8 oz glaceed pineapple
8 oz dates
8 oz raisins (I used mixed currants and golden raisins) plumped in 1/4 C liquor or grape juice
8 oz crystallized ginger


Pour a cup of the liquor over all this and leave it covered overnight, or up to a month in the refrigerator.
The day of baking, turn on the oven to 250 degrees, place a large pan of water on the oven floor. Grease a large tube pan, then line with waxed paper, then grease the paper.
Drain, saving the liquor not soaked up. Dredge the fruit so it won't float, which means mix in a very large bowl with:


1/4 C flour
Cream together:
1 C butter
1/2 C brown sugar
1/2 C honey, may use part molasses
Beat in, one at a time:
5 large eggs
Mix/ sift together:
1 1/2 C flour
1 t salt
1 t baking powder
1 t allspice
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t clove

Add the flour mix to the butter mix alternately with:
6 T orange juice, grape juice, or liquor (use what you saved first)
Pour the batter over the fruit, mix gently but thoroughly. Pour into the tube pan, avoiding air pockets, but do not pack or flatten the mix.


Decorate the top with:
Pecan halves
Cherry halves

Bake 3-4 hours at 250 degrees. Because they bake so long, any uneven heating of your oven is exaggerated, so you should rotate the pans after an hour or so. Test with a skewer- the center will be moist but not doughy. Let cool about a half hour before turning out of the pan, then peel all the waxed paper before the cakes are completely cool.

Douse with:
1/2 to 1 C liquor
Store in an airtight container, or use a jumbo zippered plastic bag, pressing out the air. Place a shot glass in the middle; refill with a little liquor every couple of weeks till you eat it. Or sprinkle with liquor monthly until served.


This and other great recipes at http://www.ellenskitchen.com/recipebox/fruitcak.html

The Whiskey Lovers Guide to Making Fruitcake

Fruitcake Recipe

INGREDIENTS
1 C water
1 C sugar
4 large eggs
2 C dried fruit
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 C brown sugar
Lemon juice
Nuts
1 FULL bottle of your favorite whiskey (feel free to substitute: rum, bourbon, sherry, cognac)

Directions:
1. Sample the whiskey to check for quality.
2. Take a large bowl. Check the whiskey again to be sure that it is of the highest quality.
3. Pour one level cup and drink. Repeat.
4. Turn on the electric mixer; beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl.
5. Add one tsp. sugar and beat again.
6. Be sure the whiskey is still okay. Try another tup.
7. Turn off the mixer.
8. Break two legs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.
9. Mix on the turner.
10. If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers, pry it loose with a drewscriver.
11. Sample the whiskey to check for tonsisticity.
12. Next, sift two cups of salt. Or something. Who cares. 1
3. Check the whiskey.
14. Now sift the lemon juice and strain your nuts.
15. Add one table. Spoon. Of sugar or something. Whatever you can find.
16. Grease the oven.
17. Turn the cake tin to 350 degrees.
18. Don't forget to beat off the turner.
19. Throw the bowl out the window.
20. Check the whiskey again. Go to bed.

Things To Do With A Fruitcake

Paint a few white and place them outside on the grass so people won't park on your lawn.

Use it as building material. (This is actually what the Ancient Egyptians used to build the Great Pyramids.)

Keep one under your pillow for home defense.

Send one to the junk mail company with a note asking them to take you off their list.


It's colorful, use it as a Yule Log.

Carve the Presidents' faces in one and submit it as a science project.

Give one to your boss and tell him it's a life preserver.

Fruitcake’s Bum Wrap

We all know the jokes about fruitcakes. Doorstop or anvil with nuts or the gift you give as a gag. But how did such a dessert go from the foodstuff of Kings and Queens to the Rodney Dangerfield of cake. I’m telling ya, fruitcake gets no respect at all!!

Here are some famous humorous quotes and jokes about fruitcake

The worst gift is fruitcake. There is only one fruitcake in the entire world,
and people keep sending it to each other. -- Johnny Carson

Why is history like a fruit cake? Because it is full of dates!

Why do fruitcakes make ideal gifts? Because the Postal Service has been unable
to find a way to damage them.

Who Put The FRUIT Into The Cake?

First off let's look at the name Fruitcake. Its origins spring from a combination of the Latin fructus, and French frui or frug.

So there you have the origin of the word.

What about the cake itself!!!

Well fruitcake can be traced back to the Roman occupation of Egypt. The recipe included pomegranate seeds, pine nuts, and raisins that were mixed into barley mash. This was the food for long campaigns. Honey, spices, and preserved fruits were added during the Middle Ages when the dried fruits became popular. Crusaders and hunters were reported to have carried this type of cake to sustain themselves over long periods of time away from home just as the Romans did.

The introduction of cheap sugar played a role in fruitcake development in the 18th century. All sorts of fruits could be preserved though the candying process. Candying is taking fruits and soaking them in high concentrations of sugar. This soaking intensifies color and flavor as well as preserves the fruit for a longer period of time. Now these candied fruits could be shipped all over the world and wound up as a main ingredient in the fruitcake. The tasty dessert, then called a plum cake, was later outlawed in Europe for being too "sinfully rich" in the latter 1700's. Goodness!! It was against the law to eat a fruitcake. Then you would have been shot if you ate a frater then!!!

Between 1800's and 1901, fruitcake was extremely popular. A Victorian "Tea" would not have been complete without the addition of the fruitcake to the sweet and savory spread. Queen Victoria is said to have waited a year to eat a fruitcake she received for her birthday because she felt it showed restraint, moderation and good taste.

Nuts were introduced into the formula, probably because America's foremost fruitcake makers-Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana, Texas,( http://www.collinstreet.com/) and Claxton Bakery of Claxton, Georgia(http://www.claxtonfruitcake.com/)-were located in rural Southern communities with a surplus of cheap nuts. The Corsicana cake includes pecans. The expression "nutty as a fruitcake" was coined in 1935. NOW I know where they get that from!!

So now you know a little more about fruitcakes!!!

What Exactly Are We Talking About?

Well what in the world is fruit cake anyway and how did it get its Christmas fame. Well gather round readers and I will tell you what it is. Grab a piece of fruitcake and a glass of milk and read on.




Fruitcake usually has candied fruit, citron (this is the thick peel of the citrus fruit of the same name. It is made by simmering the peels in syrup and sugar), nuts, spices, dried fruit, fruit rind, and some sort of liquor or brandy. There is almost an equal amount of cake batter to the fruits and nuts you put into the batter. I mean the cake barely holds of the ingredients you put into it. This makes a very dense, heavy cake. Fruitcakes can be classified as either light or dark, although it is not necessarily the color that matters.

The lighter ones are less rich than their darker cousins and have subtler flavors and aroma. Lighter fruitcakes are made with granulated sugar, light corn syrup, almonds, golden raisins, pineapple and apricots.

The darker cakes are considered be the top of the line and are more commonly found. They are much bolder in flavor and appearance. The darker cakes get their color from molasses, brown sugar, dates, cherries, raisins, prunes, pecans and walnuts. Ok we know what's in a fruit cake. Now how did it get associated with Christmas? Did you finish your first piece yet? Well hurry up and wash it down. The Christmas tie in to fruitcake is next.

In the 1700's A ceremonial type of fruitcake was baked at the end of the nut harvest and saved and eaten the next year to celebrate the beginning of the next harvest, hoping it will bring them another successful harvest. After the harvest, nuts were mixed and made into a fruitcake that was saved until the following year. At that time, previous year's fruitcakes were consumed in the hope that its symbolism would bring the blessing of another successful harvest.

Now this practice could have transformed into the Christmas holidays. Most likely the Christmas fruitcake came from the English, who passed out slices of cake to poor women who sang Christmas carols in the street during the late 1700s. So next time you get carolers at your doorstep take a piece of cake to them for their hard work and revive an old tradition

Fraters - A piece of heaven or the Devils handiwork?

OMG I’m getting heavier just thinking about these.

I went back to the Monastery site because I saw something so decadent that it shouldn’t be made in a holy place. There are called fraters. Look at these pieces of devilish heaven!! Who ever thought of a frater is a genius!!!

They are pieces of fruitcake dipped in a deep dark chocolate!!! These should be against the law in most states!! They look SOO good!!! The Holy Cross Abbey also has great honeys and truffles. Visit it next time your in the mood for a piece of chocolate and fruity goodness.

http://monasteryfruitcake.org/productsfraters.asp

Holy Fruitcake

This is too cool ... monks who make and sell fruitcake!

I was unaware that Monasteries were even on the Internet ... I personally have this "image" of dark stone cellars and the middle ages. Guess I'll have to revise that image because it is apparent that this Abbey is a happening place.

http://monasteryfruitcake.org/productsfruitcakes.asp

The Beginning

I got an email from my former partner "Edie" today and given the time of year I flashed back to a fond memory of the year Edie and I started our business. Christmas was fast approaching so we made an executive decision to take a few days off and make Christmas cake. Neither of us had done this before, so we decided to find a half-dozen totally different recipes and try them ALL out.

We spent our days off by creating long lists of ingredients, visiting several grocery stores and spending long hours listening to the radio and discussing our business while we chopped and chopped and chopped, mixed and baked. The hardest part was determining if the cake was baked ... we didn't want any raw spots, nor did we want to overdo the cakes creating a dried out mess.

We then soaked our cakes in rum, whisky or sherry and patiently waited for just before Christmas to divy up the goodies.

One cake stood out above the rest -- Sylvia's fruitcake -- a concoction that was heavy on the nuts and with hardly any of the traditional candied fruits. Over the years Edie phoned, faxed or emailed me for the recipe, until she found a recipe she liked even better.

I have several favorite recipes which I will share with you in future posts. I hope you will feel inspired to share your family recipes with us -- and indulge in all things "fruitcake" -- serious or otherwise.

All fruitcakes of any size, variety or origin are welcome in the Fruitcake Zone!