Wedding cake is fruitcake...right?

I'm planning my wedding - very exciting! And OF COURSE my wedding cake has to be fruitcake. I mean, how could it be anything else? That is, after all, the traditional wedding cake. A certain fairly well-known couple got married last year and had a fruitcake. Surprising then, that when talking with caterers, they look askance and are vaguely surprised when I say that my wedding cake will be a fruitcake. (Yes, I'll be having a sweet table as well for those people who think fruitcake=poison, which includes the groom-to-be).

Although still traditional(or at least heard of) in England, the fruitcake as wedding cake has gone out of favor, but it wasn't that long ago when it was still the thing. I have in front of me a Good Housekeeping cookbook from 1949, and under "Three Tiered Wedding Cake" it instructs "Make 3 times recipe for Toasted Almond Fruit Cake." The thing we now think of as the wedding cake was referred to on the next page as the "Bride's Cake" and is a white cake. I have also heard the fruitcake referred to as the groom's cake, which would seem to follow if the white cake was the bride's cake.

So it seems that the groom, just like his cake, has been relegated to a back corner of the bride's wedding. In any event, THIS bride is going traditional with a fruitcake. I will definitely be adding more research on this. In the mean time I'll be looking for a sturdy serrated knife to cut that first piece.

Cake aux fruits confits, Dimanche à Paris

Hello all! I want to tell you about a little affair I had with a French fruitcake. A friend brought me back this little slice of délicieux from Paris. She bought it at a chocolatier called Un Dimanche à Paris, which is a combination boutique-restaurant-chocolate bar, etc. Looks very chic. Here's an English review.

Let me give you the play-by-play. First, I received this lovely bag:

Extremely chic. I peeked inside, and this is what I found:

A gorgeous, elegant box, about a foot long and about 2-3 inches wide. I peeked at the side and noticed a sticker saying what was inside: cake fruits confits. In French, as many people know, cake is known as  gâteau. Cake is a specific type of cake: like a pound cake, sometimes spiced. In comparison to the more ethereal and complex gâteaux one sees in France, cake is more basic, yet still rich and delicious. Cake doesn't necessarily imply a fruitcake. However, fruits confits certainly does imply fruitcake: it means candied fruit. Yay!

The French version of fruitcake, however, is much different than the typical fruitcake I review, know, and love. Let me show you what the cake looked like when I opened the box:

Ooh la la! Very elegant. What you're seeing is a very rich, delicious pound cake with a smattering of fruit, topped with a delicious selection of candied fruit: absolutely high quality, top of the line candied fruit. Plus, my favorite lagniappe, if I may add some Cajun French to this review:

Sprinkled among the candied fruit were delicious pâtes de fruits, fruit jellies of the most delicious, intense flavor. Yummy. The one I show above is topped with a bit of chocolate showing the Un Dimanche à Paris logo.

Doing a quick Google search reveals that Dean and DeLuca offer a similar cake, and I found one at another bakery in New York. There are quite a few recipes for this around the web as well, though many of them are in French. I won't add this to the listings of fruitcakes because it is a one-off, but it was positively one of the best souvenirs I could receive from Paris!

Happy New Year from Mondo Fruitcake!

A very happy and tasty 2012 to all. I'm heading into my "I'm done with fruitcake" season soon, though I still have a stollen to enjoy. All the best to everyone in the new year!

Crikey! Suspicious Activity/National Fruitcake Day

Something horrible happened to the blog, somewhere right around Christmas, I think. Thanks to blog follower vkrn for pointing it out. I blame those fruitcake haters. Seems about right that a blog glorifying the fruitcake would be assaulted right around the holidays.

Anyway, stand proud in your love of the fruitcake. Today is National Fruitcake day! Send one to your friend/neighbor! Mention to a colleague at work how much you enjoyed X or Y fruitcake that you had over the holidays! I challenge you to do one positive fruitcake-related thing today. The world will be a better, more tolerant place for it.