Favorite fruitcakes was [Sca-cooks] Flying Haggis

[Pixel, Goddess and Queen]

On Fri, 19 Oct 2001, Philip & Susan Troy wrote:

> Sue Clemenger wrote:
>
> > So, Master A, (or anyone else, of course <g>), what's your favorite
> > fruitcake? I actually like some of it, although I don't care for the
> > ones made with commercial candied fruit....there's just something nasty
> > and unnatural about green pineapple.....
>
> I like Malachi McCormick's Irish-type fruitcake (I believe he's from Cork: it may be typical of that area) which is very nearly a pound cake with added fruit. No green pineapple, although I think he includes some candied citron peel, along with the usual currants, sultanas, almonds, etc. This is anomalous to my experience in its use of a white pound-cake-type base along with the typical "daily feeding" of the firewater of your choice. Most of the fruitcakes that seem to send children running in terror and strong men climbing trees to escape them have been, in my own experience, darker fruitcakes made with treacle or molasses, although of course a sufficiency of dark fruits will color the cake, too. In fairly typical British Isles fruitcake fashion, it is then covered with almond paste to seal in moisture, then iced with something akin to royal icing...
>
>
> Adamantius

I must confess to liking two different kinds. The first is the recipe that
my grandfather used in the bakery, and is the one that my mother makes. No
nuts, as she's allergic, and double the quantity of cherries to make up
for the lack of nuts. No green cherries, lots of currants and raisins
and sultanas, a little candied citron and citrus peels (but only in their
naturally occurring colors) liberally macerated in brandy before
baking. The cake is pretty much a pound cake with what Mom calls dark
spices, but I don't think there's any molasses in it. Spices, IIRC, are
cloves, cinnamon, ginger, and probably some other things I'm forgetting at
the moment.

I do remember that you *must* mix in the fruits with your hands, though,
so as to keep the cake as light as possible.

Then there is my uncle's bakery recipe, which is a light pound cake with a
slightly different fruit collection. I'd have to ask exactly what goes
into it, though.

Margaret