Wednesday, December 5, 2018

Off My Game

 It's December and I don't have my fruitcake made. Everyone knows you have to make your fruitcake with the first frost of November. I picked Monday to get mine in the oven and it was sunny and 63 degrees out. I should have known better.



I had my new Echo synced tablet in its dock ready to show me what I needed to know. I was making Alton Brown's Free Range Fruitcake and this year I could cook along with his video. Cool.



First I had to let the dried fruits soak in the booze all morning.



 Using my mom's micro-planer is always cool. It's really the only time I use it. I could zest fruit all day.



 Alton cooks his fruit and sugar mixture. I usually don't but I thought I'd give it a try.


 It's like adding mincemeat to your batter. It looked iffy to me. I tasted the batter and it seemed very sweet. I was worried. I also forgot the nuts. I had to scrape it all out of the pans and back in to the bowl, wash the pans and then fill them all over again. Argh....


Uh, oh. The loaves turned out fine but the little bundt did not. It worked just fine last year. I did Pam the heck out of it.  Oh, well. It gave me a piece to test and it's not too bad. It is a little sweeter than usual but since I ate quite a bit of the broken pieces I think it will be okay. Different but okay. I guess....


 You know I got up Tuesday morning at 6 am and redid the whole thing, don't you?


 This time I brought the ingredients together like any other cake batter and then added the dried fruit after just a wee soak in the booze. I did not forget the nuts. I also used only half the sugar in the original recipe.



 Better. Much better. I am more the cakey type than the fruity type but that could probably be argued in either direction. 








10 comments:

  1. All those broken bits would be good in a fruitcake triffle ---------lemon whipped cream, anyone? Or maybe ... CINNAMON whipped cream.

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  2. Looks yummy! I need to bake mine. I use BBC GoodFood recipe.

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  3. You made them TWICE!!! I still want to make one. Love Dee's idea of a fruitcake trifle with cinnamon whipped cream - that would be a winner!

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  4. Nice to try something new but tried and true usually pleases me more, too!

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  5. I love reading your blog! You are so 'real' and this particular post gave me a chuckle! I get my fruit cake the easy way - my Mom makes it and mails it halfway across the country to me!

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  6. I haven't made my Mom's fruitcake in years. Sigh!

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  7. Oh man... I bought a little one from the grocery store on Friday and I'd eaten it all by the end of the weekend. I really need to try making one!

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  8. Both look yummy, but I think yours looks better. I really do need to try fruitcake someday. And why am I not surprised that you got up and redid the whole thing? You are a perfectionist my friend. Blessings, Betsy

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  9. The cakes look delicious! Glad the second batch was the taste you wanted. A slice of cake will be a great treat on a grey winter day.

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  10. WOw 0600 baking! I admire you lady! Im asleep till 8!

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