[Sca-cooks] One of the original fruitcakes has been admittedto ; -)

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Sue Clemenger:
>Perhaps they had plums in them at one point, but have just retained the
>name, the way most modern mincemeat pies contain no meat? Or maybe it
>was related to "sugarplums," which at one point were certainly preserved
>plums, but by the 18th c. seem to have become more inclusive ("visions
>of sugarplums", etc.).
>This particular American doesn't like the candied fruit in your ordinary
>fruitcake--color, texture don't bother me, and the booze is just fine!
><g> When I've had fruitcakes made with other, dried fruits, or with
>home-candied fruits, I've liked it just fine, although I'm not a huge
>cake person.  I suspect it's more the glace cherries and pineapple in my
>case--I've had candied citron peel in things like (oh, hell, what *is*
>the name of that stuff) that festive, sweet Italian bread that's made
>with a fairly soft dough.....
>gack.  I need coffee!
>--maire

Would that be pannetone?

I'd be inclined to believe the latter explanation in re "sugerplums", 
especially as plum puddings seem to have evolved from plum porridge, 
also usually not made with plums. (IOW, plum puddings appear never, 
or almost never, to have contained plums, from the recipes I've 
seen.) I'm also interested in the fact that (usually) in England, 
where plum pudding seems to have originated, "plums" per se are 
mentioned _relatively_ rarely: Damsons, bullace (sp?), greengages, 
and prunes, yes. Plums, no, or at least not very often, or not as 
often as specific varieties which render the generic term redundant. 
[Ladies and Gentlemen: Start your engines and run to the OED to prove 
me wrong!] Again, it may be due to their non-native status in some 
parts of the UK.

I actually had a surprisingly non-poisonous fruitcake venue from an 
unexpected source a week or two ago. We found (I think it was) Stella 
d'Oro fruit slices in the supermarket; these resembled biscotti (the 
kind that are sliced from a loaf and rebaked), but with fruit (almost 
all peel, as I recall), and an unexpectedly moist crumb, so they were 
clearly not biscotti.

They were made from white flour/sugar and appeared to contain no 
booze, and for the average fan of such things I'd have to assume the 
primary selling point would be their rather pretty speckled 
appearance. The crumb was slightly dense and chewy, almost as if 
they'd been made from bread flour or high-gluten flour, but cut with 
butter or other shortening.

The Evil Spawn, who professes to hate fruitcake in all forms, 
discovered them while in Grazing Pre-Teen Mode, and proceeded to 
attack them, proclaiming that they didn't suck nearly as badly as he 
had expected them to...

Adamantius