Making the fruitcake now. (With the nutmeat.) This cake is insane. I'm excited for it.

Who has had bad or good fruitcake experiences? I'm curious to hear about it. I was watching the Food Network and there was some baker whose business was mail-order fruitcake-- and they were, by far, the most popular makers of fruitcake in the United States. Had been for decades. And they were incredibly defensive about fruitcake's reputation. I had to think-- they are responsible for it! Their cakes looked nast.

I don't think I've ever had a Christmas without my mother's fruitcake. It's moist and comforting and has layers of flavours.

I'm sure there's bad fruitcake out there, but what sort of food doesn't have bad examples? Most of the things people complain about aren't inherent to fruitcake--just to crap.

I've always had good fruitcake, even the bought kind. There is something just enticing about meager amounts of meaty liquor soaked dough and reliquored dried fruits all crammed in a nice dense package. But I've only had about three varieties in repetition (one being the bought, the other two homemade.)

Jimmy Smits isn't goodlooking.

He is damned hot, though. I wonder how he does that. Whoops. They just blew him up. I guess I'll have to work it out some other time.

Some people just don't like dried fruit, and thus don't like fruitcake. These people are freaks, but their irrational fruitcakephobia just means more fruitcake for me, so I'm good with that.

'Course, if fruitcake is all dry then it is disappointing - it should be moist, and scrumptious, and almost entirely fruit, with just a little bit of cake to hold the fruit together. And ideally have cherries in there, along with all the variations on dried grape and citrus peel and spices and alcohol...

...mmm. Fruitcake.

But I'm not a big fan of the traditional thick & hard white icing. Marzipan alone is so much yummier than marzipan with icing on top.

I like it with the icing on, although I eat neither that nor the marzipan. I steal the Christmas pudding's hard butter instead.

They put icing on it? Ew. Never had that version.

I like dense where you break off crumbles and nibble because then I can control the sweetness infusion.

No icing (or frosting, for that matter) on this cake.

He is damned hot, though. I wonder how he does that. Whoops. They just blew him up.

Heh. I had the same thing! Except I do think he's goodlooking.

We had awesome apricot (?) fruitcake at my parents'. Yummers. This one [link] actually.

They put icing on it? Ew. Never had that version.

????

Christmas Cake! You people don't have Christmas Cake?

::mind boggles::

See also: Wedding Cake and Christening Cake.

My Christening Cake was the bottom layer of my parents' Wedding Cake. The hard icing (along with all the alcohol soaked into the fruit) acts as a most excellent preservation agent - you put the cake in a tin and then keep it, and then when you need it again in a few years' time you just remove the icing, put on fresh icing, and there you are with a Christening Cake.