30 April 2006

The first match: Gethsemani vs. Collin Street

My first forays into fruitcake will be the tried and true, beloved Gethsemani Farms fruitcake versus what, in my circle at least, is one of the more well-known of fruitcakes, that made by the Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana, Texas. I vaguely remember my family getting a gift of a Collin Street fruitcake when I was young. At that time, I was fascinated by the tin cover design--a cowboy roping something, scattered amongst fruitcake and Christmas-related imagery. It seemed strange and incongruous for a fruitcake--what does a cowboy know about fruitcake? The actual cake at that time, for me, was a real disappointment: golden, sickeningly sweet, full of fruit that I didn't quite recognize. And I'm talking about a kid, here, someone to whom "golden" and "sickeningly sweet" should have appealed.

But time passes and my goal for this blog is to have, if not unbiased, at least fairly objective descriptions of the cakes I'll be reviewing. So bring 'em on. With regret that I ate up my half-fruitcake from Gethsemani in January (as well as, I believe, a full quarter of my mom's), I have ordered, online, a fruitcake from both of the companies above, sending dust flying off hard-drives and rousing the one employee each company keeps in the non-Christmas season to fill the orders, I'm sure.

Both companies seem to solicit a heck of a lot of information from me just to get the fruitcakes out, particularly Collin Street--it felt as if I entered my address at least three times. I'm assuming this would come in handy if you were sending to a lot of people--that way your contact address, billing address, and shipping addresses could be separate.

Reviews to follow once the fruitcakes are received. Merry Christmas in May!

27 April 2006

Proust's madeleines=my fruitcake

I started this blog because of the lingering frustration that I have with the state of this nation's attitude toward fruitcake.

Since I was a little girl, I've always liked fruitcake. Perhaps I should amend that: a specific fruitcake--the fruitcake of the Gethsemani monks in Trappist, Kentucky. I've grown up with it, and even now look forward to getting it as a gift from my mom every Christmas. (Normally it's given in combination with some of their cheese--mild, Muenster-like, but very smelly).

So the flavor of that fruitcake--bourbony, dense, moist, and redolent of rich spices and fruit--sets me off on what I hope to be a journey through the world of fruitcake at its best.