27 October 2007

Next Fruitcake: Our Lady of Guadalupe

I have succumbed to the continued pestering of a frequent commenter, and my next fruitcake will be from Our Lady of Guadalupe, a Trappist abbey in Oregon. I'm being glib--no pestering was needed, not after the horror that was Hickory Farms. I'm always up for an abbey fruitcake. These guys wouldn't let me order less than two of them, a little strange, but since they're one-pound fruitcakes and the total before shipping was $22, not a big deal.

Review: Hickory Farms 2-lb Fruitcake

I am not pleasantly surprised with this one.

Execrable. Inedible. Absolutely disgusting. I believe I have, once again, confirmed my theory that the mass-produced fruitcakes are horrible.

This is a very cute, $29, 2-lb fruitcake. Or rather, it comes in a very cute tin:



The fruitcake itself is also cute. It is garnished with WALNUTS, a little different than the usual, pecans (and it strikes me as a rather cheap alternative).

But the flavor. Ye gads. It’s interesting that the website lists cherries, pecans, pineapple, etc. as the ingredients in this cake. Sure, they’re there, but the first ingredient? Raisins. The cake is a lumpy, sweet, mish-mash of raisins. You can kind of taste some pineapple, as well as some hideously sweet, bright red candy-like cherries, but mostly it’s just sweet.

The texture is goopy. There is supposed to be some brandy and other booze in the mix, but I can’t taste it. The cherries made me shake, and I’m a fruitcake lover. There are partially hydrogenated oils in this cake, too – isn’t that trans fat? Aren’t people trying to get away from that? Why would I want it in my fruitcake?

No, unfortunately everything I feared about this fruitcake was correct. Avoid it. I think this one actually rates lower than the turnip cakes. The Hickory Farms fruitcake is going directly into the trash. It’s a waste of money.

Now I HAVE to review another fruitcake—I can’t go into the festive fruitcake season with this being the last memory of fruitcake on my mind.

11 October 2007

This is my new logo . . . .


If I can ever get it into the header successfully. Sorry, people, some technical difficulties. Howya like it? I think it's great. My niece, the designer, is groovy (and also grew up on Gethsemani Farms).