[Sca-cooks] fruit cake

[Pixel, Goddess and Queen]

> > I think it is time for our other honored tradition - the fruit cake
> > discussion;-)
> >
> > I was threatening on sending an american fruit cake to my luftwaffe buddy
> if
> > he didn't behave, and had to explain about the eternal fruit cake. He
> > finally understood it wasn't stollen but something to be feared ;-)
>
> Just for the record, Alton Brown's fruitcake recipe isn't something to be
> feared, but revered. The thing's actually EDIBLE - tasty, too.
> http://www.foodtv.com/recipes/re-c1/0,,8607,00.html
>
> Avraham

For that matter, my grandfather's fruitcake recipe, and my uncle's recipe,
are both quite tasty. My grandfather's is much like a pound cake with
spices and fruits added, while my uncle's has fewer spices and is thus
lighter in color.

It's not *all* American fruitcakes that are frightening, it's the
commercially produced ones. I understand from various of my relations that
British fruitcake is similar to the recipe my grandfather used in the
bakery, or perhaps that should be the other way 'round. Anyway, if you
have a good cake recipe to start with, and quality ingredients, a
fruitcake needn't be the compressed brick of cheap sugary candied fruit in
cellophane that you find on the shelf at Wal-Mart.

The other problem, I think, is one of perceptions. When most Americans
hear "cake", they immediately think of your everyday butter or oil cake
that you make with the boxed mix. Fruitcake is a trifle more dense than
that. Also, there isn't a huge tradition in this country of fruit-filled
bakery goods where the fruit isn't a puree or paste (like in sweet rolls).
Oatmeal cookies and cinnamon rolls can have raisins in them, but you
really don't find a whole lot of fruit-filled breads or cakes the same way
you do in Europe.

Anybody have a theory on that?

Margaret