Monday, July 16, 2012

A midyear fruit cake

I know we revisit this topic often but my brother's favourite cake is fruit cake.  I mean all-time favourite.  When we were flatting together, he once bought a Christmas pudding thinking it would be like fruit cake.  I remember him coming home from the supermarket with all grocery shopping really really pleased with himself.  Look at what I got, Anna, one kilogram of fruit cake! And it only cost a dollar!  School had started so it must have been February and the supermarkets were trying to get rid of their Christmas stock.  I pointed out to him that it wasn't actually fruit cake, it was Christmas pudding.  He told me they were the same and asked if I would like some.  I declined.  In my opinion, Christmas pudding is the worst idea known to man kind.  Well, it's a close second to trifle.  Ew.  He ate quite a bit of it that night and was sick the next day. 

In her absence, my mother has asked me to bake him a fruit cake.  Yesterday I went around to all the stores near us looking for the ingredients.  Red glacé cherries were not available, nor were currants.  I have made do with the small amount of mixed cherry stuff I had left over from Christmas, orange peel, yellow raisins, brown raisins, cranberries, and slivered almonds.  I couldn't find blanched almonds so I blanched them myself and picked out all the peel by hand.  Jbird called it a special kind of torture.   If you ask me, yellow raisins are nothing like sultanas.  Nothing.  They're just a different coloured raisin.  Perhaps if they don't add to the flavour, they'll add to the aesthetics.  I thought about adding dried strawberries but things were getting a little bit pricey by then. 

I have those puppies soaking in a mixture of marmalade, brandy, and lemon juice and I'll bake the cake tomorrow. 

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