Next up: Georgia Fruitcake Company

The votes are in, and the next fruitcake will be from the Georgia Fruitcake company. I was thinking of getting their regular fruitcake, but one reader found another one they have that includes bourbon in the mix. So, in the interest of fair, balanced reporting, I'll get both.

Yes, that means two fruitcakes. And I definitely want to experience the fruitcakes that come vacuum-packed into a can like so much coffee. So I have four pounds of fruitcake coming my way, to be reviewed as soon as they come.

UPDATE: Just ordered them, and there's no shipping - how nice!

Reader's choice: which one next?

Hi - sorry I've been so tardy. For some reason I haven't been in the mood for fruitcake, lately. Maybe because it's been so cold for summer here in the Chicago area. It seems the warmer it gets, the more I want fruitcake--specifically, a Southern-style fruitcake. Yes, I know it's perverse, but there it is. That's what eating fruitcake year-round will do to you.

So I'm leaving it up to the 1.25 people left reading this blog to help me select which Southern-style fruitcake I'll try next. Which would you choose?

Sunshine Hollow Bakery -- the fruitcakes look good, but I'm sorely tempted by the Woozy cakes.
W.H.O. Women - A North Carolina charity, I'm checking to see if these are even available outside of the holiday season. UPDATE: they do ship year-round.
Sunnyland Farms - From Georgia, their special ingredient is grape juice. A sad replacement for booze in my opinion, but I'm game.
Yahoo Texas Manor Fruitcakes - This one might be on the edge of Southern and Mass-produced. A sort of mass-produced Southern cake, maybe? But look at this adorable cake--I might need to get one of those, too!
Georgia Fruitcake - I find this one very intriguing. The cake hails from Claxton, Georgia, home of the Claxton Fruitcake. How one town can support two fruitcake companies, I don't know.

See how many I still have to do? And these are only the Southern-style. Sheesh. Anyway, please vote in the comments, and write-ins will definitely be considered, as well--that's how I found the lovely Holy Spirit Monastery fruitcake. Happy Fourth of July to everyone!

Review: Robert Lambert 1-pound Dark Fruitcake

So here's the dark Robert Lambert fruitcake:

It looks about the same as the white one, but it is, of course, darker. This one looks and tastes much more like a traditional dark fruitcake--there seems to be more cherries than the light one, so when you slice it, it looks more like a traditional cake. It, just like the white one, has lots of stuff in it--figs, dates, and prunes, as well as more exotic peels, like blood orange and bergamot. It also includes both port wine and Jack Daniels.

Flavor, just as the previous one, is good and exotic, but a bit more traditional than the white fruitcake. Just as with the previous, the size of the ingredients in this loaf is a bit off-putting to me. It may be due to the small size of the loaf to begin with, but I really don't like how large the bits are. Plus, as I had mentioned in the Old Cavendish fruitcake review, I dearly love figs, dates, and prunes outside of a cake, but don't really love them inside one.

Just as with the Lambert white fruitcake, you can definitely taste the quality of the ingredients in this cake. This is a very good fruitcake: it's different, a bit exotic, and might be a great one to try if you're trying to find something different in a traditional dark fruitcake--this is a dark fruitcake that goes to 11, as Spinal Tap would say. However, because this one tastes more traditional than the white cake, I would probably purchase a monastery fruitcake over this one--you get more cake for your dollar.

Perhaps I'm jaded because I tried the white fruitcake first, but that one was really something different, and if I had to choose between purchasing one or the other, I'd definitely purchase the white fruitcake.

Review: Robert Lambert 1-pound White Fruit Cake

Look at this precious little gem.

I received the very wonderful gift of a set (white and dark) of Robert Lambert fruitcakes, for which I very much thank the sender. This is just a review of the white or lighter fruitcake – I still have the other little treasure in my fridge. It’s a beautiful fruitcake, but the price—the price. $50 for a 16 oz cake. That’s about $3 per ounce--roughly 3 times the price of most other fruitcakes I’ve reviewed. Is it worth it? Yes--once in your lifetime, it’s worth it. This fruitcake rocked my world. This could lead me down the path of seeking out higher-end fruitcake or, dare I say it, creating my own. Definitely a fruitcake for foodies.

The tiny-tiny, precious little loaf comes looking like a present from heaven, and smells divine. I undressed the cake like a lover. Here’s the cake itself:

Ingredients are all natural and the strangest ever. Dig the fruits: white raisin, dried pineapple, glacéed cherries, coconut, candied Meyer lemon peel, blood orange peel, bergamot peel, Rangpur lime peel, and Buddha’s hand citrus. The nuts? Brazil nuts, almonds, walnuts, and pecans. It is seasoned with ginger and brandy. This is what the $50 is going towards, I’d guess.

This is definitely a fruitcake for grown-ups. It contains large chunks of stringy, hairy things (the aforementioned peels, as well as the coconut). The cake batter itself is much like a good pound cake and, as is usual for a fruitcake, merely serves to bind the fruit together. The flavor? Exotically interesting, distinctive—a whole different fruitcake experience. It has a very heavy peel and ginger taste. It’s delicious and one of a kind, but a bit exhausting.

A couple years ago, my boyfriend and I went to Las Vegas and had dinner one evening at Guy Savoy, in Caesar’s Palace. It was the most fabulous dining experience of my life. The service was unobtrusively doting, the décor, fabulous, and Céline Dion’s husband was eating dinner with a group of Québécois a couple of tables away. There was someone designated to fold your napkin and put it back on the table for you if you went to the washroom. There was a little chair for my purse. And the food blew my mind. You get the idea. This fruitcake is like Guy Savoy. One time in your life you must try this fruitcake.

This is number one with a bullet, to the top of the Other category. I look forward to eating the next one.