30 September 2010

Veda's Dark Fruitcake

I am MORTIFIED to learn that for some reason, I have no individual photos of these beautiful, beautiful homemade fruitcakes I was sent. Veda's cakes were both absolutely gorgeous, as you can see from the one--and only one--photo I have of the two cakes, flanking a home-made pie at my family's Christmas dinner. The dark fruitcake, towards the front, is surrounded by leftover slices of other fruitcakes I had reviewed during the year. That's the family tradition every since I created this blog - to feast on the leftovers from a season's review of fruitcakes (I freeze slices of any of the fruitcakes I deem worthy of being retained).
So as you look at the photo of my sister's beautifully festive table, the Dundee cake is towards the back, garnished with toasted almonds, while Veda's dark fruitcake is towards the front, garnished with fruit. I'll just talk about the dark fruitcake in this post, and provide the recipe as well in another post.

Veda's dark fruitcake contains pecans and walnuts as the nuts, and dates, golden and dark raisins, currants, glaceed cherries and candied lemon and orange peels for the fruit. If you've read my blog at all, you know how I'm not super keen on raisins in my fruitcake, as I think it gives it a syrupy burnt flavor, and the same was true with this cake. But that is simply an individual preference, and let me tell you, beyond that, I still ate the whole cake up. The glaceed cherries were of very high quality, and Veda even sometimes candies her own oranges and lemon peels, so all the ingredients were quite delicious. It has a delicious boozy flavor, from both brandy and rum. Yum. As recipes go, I'd say it's a keeper.

Been a while, eh?

So it's been a darn long time since I last posted, n'est-ce pas? I apologize. I have to admit that after the last fruitcake season, I was just flat out burned out. There's only so much fruitcake you can eat, and keep in mind I've been doing this nigh on five years. And those five years have taken their toll on my waistline.

So I've gotten the waistline, at least, under control, and I think I can see my way through integrating the errant slice of fruitcake into my diet. So it's time to slowly re-introduce it and see how it goes . . .

Meanwhile, I have done a huge disservice to Veda, who sent me gorgeous fruitcakes and the recipes, and I haven't posted. But maybe this is, on the contrary, a positive thing. Frankly, who wants to think about fruitcake in March? But now the trees are turning, the pumpkins are coming out, and people are beginning to think of dark spices and lots o' carbohydrates.

It's Fruitcake Season.