Fruitcake

I know, I know, I've heard it all....

Fruitcake, the present that lasts forever.

But I happen to like it and I like to make it. Jim likes it too, which is the reason I started making it.

The story goes back farther than that. Jim's dad liked fruitcake, too. And every year his sisters would send him a cake from some catalog for his birthday since it was around Christmas time and that's when fruitcakes are sold.

Well, when his dad moved in with us, the fruitcakes came to our house and I discovered I liked them.

And when something costs $20 plus shipping in the catalog, you can bet I'm going to find a way to make it myself.

So, I went on a recipe hunt. Most recipes for fruitcake call for burgundy or rum or some sort of alcohol to soak the fruit in before it's baked or to pour over the whole cake after it's baked. I KNOW that the alcohol all bakes out during cooking, but I've never set foot in a liquor store and I'm not about to now. And don't tell me that walmart sells stuff like that because I know it does. I don't choose to buy alcohol if I can get along without it.

So there!

So I soaked my fruit and nuts in apple juice.

Then you put all the other ingredients that are likely to go into a cake....

And beat it up hard.

Pour over the fruit,

And have Jim mix it in because I got my fingers all dirty and he likes the cake anyway so he should help.

Press it down in loaf pans, or a tube pan, or whatever pan, but two loaves weren't enough because the cake dripped all over the oven and when I tried to clean the oven on automatic clean it started a fire in it.

Decorate the tops and eat as soon as it is cooled.

Now, I suppose if you let it sit for longer than 24 hours it would slice off in nice little slices, but it doesn't matter much, since it tastes just the same sliced or a bunch of pieces.

I didn't include he recipe since nobody would want to make it anyway.

HA!

I mean ENJOY!

The pictures.