What is it about Fruit Cake that makes some people make fun of them ??

I love Fruit Cake ..I just don't see anything wrong with them.
I make them and I eat them too..
I think people who mock fruit cakes are those who don't bake cakes at all.. what do you think ?

I admit that I have never had a home baked fruit cake, but I have had store-bought, and it was awful. I think for a lot of people, the heavy, dense cake does not appeal.

No I don't think that is the case at all.

For many years fruit cake has been mocked because so many people would give these rock hard things that would survive a nuclear disaster that were purchased at gift shops or grocery stores. They basically had no expiration dates. I remember we use to get them when we were little (well our parents) and they were horrible.

In the past few years I have seen them become more popular with better ingredients and much softer.

A homemade fruit cake is a whole different animal than the things you pick up from Walmart that has been sitting in a warehouse since who knows when.

My grandmother has always made one that she soaked for a month. I never tried it since I knew only the store bought ones until a couple years ago and it was delicious.

I love homemade fruit cake! I never liked the store bought kind. Something about the taste, kinda like plastic. But, homemade-----wonderful!!!!!!

I bake. I am a professional baker. I hate fruitcake. I also mock fruitcake. I do NOT mock the people who like fruitcake.

Amber

I LOOOOOOOOVVVEE fruitcake!!! I love making fruitcake .... or at least I love the smell of fruitcake baking in the oven ... (I do get a bit fed up of double lining tins, soaking fruit, going through & getting all of the stalks out of the supposedly de-stalked fruit)!! But I think it's all worth it!
I love marzipaning, icing & decorating them, and I especially love eating them!!
They're great to decorate as you can do them well in advance, and they are a great stable base to a tiered cake! But I do agree that they seem to be out of fashion a bit .... All wedding cakes in Ireland where I grew up were fruitcakes until very recently .... they were considered to be more decadent and special, as they would be more expensive to make.
I hope they come back into fashion, they taste delicious!!

Oh I know that no one here would mock people who eat them.
I know the mocking is directed to the cake itself.

But that's ok, I was just wondering. I myself don't like
Spice Cake. But I know fruit cake has spices in it, but I love those
candied fruits and nuts in them, and the rum in it esp. I prefer the dark Fruit cake.
I think they tasteway much better and not dry.

There are only certain ones that I like. I don't care for the citron that is in most fruitcakes - but the recipe I use I only put in candied pineapple, cherries, and pecans, and not a lot of spices - so I think it is great! There is a grocery here in our town that makes marvelous fruitcake too - Buehlers. They only sell it for the holidays, but if I am not into making any, that is where I will get some for my holiday addiction to it!

I love it too....especially the dark soaked in bourbon for a month or so.... WOW..... they do seem to last forever though!

I agree that most of the jokes come from the old rock hard cakes. Also, the jokes got started and everyone jumped in. I imagine a lot of the people that make fun of fruit cake have never had one.
I think they are ok but I have never had a really good one.

Would any of you that make homemade fruit cake mind sharing your favorite recipe?

Thanks,
Cindy

Fruitcake fan here! My Mom used to make one with very little "cake" and lots of nuts, dates, raisins, currants, candied cherries and other candied fruits. She made it in October, wrapped it in cheese cloth which she kept damp with rum (or brandy) until ready to serve at Christmas. (If we were lucky, we got to sample it at Thanksgiving! ) My sister and I both had it served at our weddings as well as the traditional wedding cakes!

When I was little we got a fruit cake every year from our church. It was a fund raiser.

We ordered them from Monks who that is all they did was make fruit cake. I have not had any other kind and I always loved that cake. As I get older I often think of those fruit cakes at Christmas - it must be a comfort food thing! Unfortunately, our church does not do that anymore. I will have to see if my mom knows where we used to order them from.

i personally just don't like candied fruit--i don't like dates & i hate raisins & the thing just looks gross

BUT--i'll give one a try, if you take the dates & raisins out of it --but as far as mocking anyone or the cake--i don't

I heard that there' only ONE fruitcake in the world...and it just keeps getting passed around.

I have had this companies fruitcake also - and it is very good too.

Collin Street Fruitcake

There used to be recipes around that used alum in them. They were terrible! Especially when you got a mouthful of the straight alum! Oh, man!

However fruitcake as she is supposed to be made? HEAVEN!

Anybody have a good fruit cake recipe to share?
In India especially in the south the fruit cakes are called Plum cakes. I am not sure why.
I would to go to the christian weddings there just to get a slice of the wedding cake which was almost always rich fruit cake covered with Royal icing.Yummy!

I love fruit cake but only my mom's since it's not heavy in spice but is chalk full of pecans and some candied fruit. I don't like candied fruit but this is the ONLY way I'll eat them. I just ate half of a small one today that she gave me. I have yet to met 1 person who doesn't like my mom's fruit cake and she has been making them ever since I can remember. Too bad she won't share the recipe though.

I recently read an article online about fruitcake. It said that, if properly packaged, an authentic fruitcake, because of the alcohol-based curing, can last for 100 years. I do not know if that is true, but there had been mention on television during the pre-Christmas season about one that has lasted 20 years.

Theresa

Wow! Good to know there are other people like me out there!
Thought I was the only one in the world who likes good, homemade fruitcake.
Another great fruitcake bakery in Texas is:
http://www.eilenbergerbakery.com/history.html
As a former Texan, we do some things better than anyone!!

My Mother made them every year, and every year I said YUCK. I think what it is that I really don't like is the candied Citron, it just tastes perfumey to me. Or maybe it was the brandy i didn't like, but I would eat all around the fruit, the cake wasn't bad.

Remember on Seinfeld when Elaine ate the rare priceless piece of fruitcake from the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor? And tried to replace it with Entemans? Too funny.

A craisin and dried apple fruitcake would be good! You use the fruit and nuts you like, it's not necessary to use that horrible candied fruit muck that's sold for fruitcakes..You also don't need to use any alcohol on them.

ugh i dont like fruitcake.... I remember my grama made them for my dad and uncle at Easter time and it would sit wrapped in the attic until Xmas when they would all get them. I just cant imagine eating something that's sat out for that long. blah lol (not to mention im NOT a fan of candied fruit.)

My grandmother use to make it every xmas. She doused it with so much rum you could get tipsy just smelling it.lol. We use to argue (before she came to dinner) on who would have to eat some, it was that bad. My mom (her dil) claimed she couldn't because she was diabetic and said my kids couldn't because the were little and my then husband was a non-drinker, so it seemed every year I would have to choke down a piece to please her. lol. To this day I hate fruit cake and rum.

hmmm, I don't think my mom puts rum in hers because I don't taste any of it and I normaly can taste liquior in anything. DALT- I'll see if she has one left and I'll mail you one. I'm not kidding either.

I am one of the few that just LOVES it!!! ...the dark type though and it has to be well aged in a brandy or rum soaked cheesecloth and then wrapped up and stored away till it is ripe...and then it has to have marzipan on the top of it for the full enjoyment. I don't make it anymore because I would eat it all up myself

It reminds me of my mother when she would make the cakes and the Christmas puddings and we would all get a stir and a wish.

Maybe I will make myself just a teeny one next year

Jane

I love fruit cakes and nearly all my comissions are fruit cake (as a decorator it gives me a lot longer to work on them!) I guess people mock it for the same reason anyone mocks anything; ignorance. There's a difference between mocking something and not liking something once it's been tried. I respect anyone who's tried a fruit cake and says they don't like it, at least they tried it, maybe they tried a bad example?

I too love fruitcake, I wish they were more popular, they are so brilliant to work with, I have'nt made a christmas cake this year cos like so many,most of my family don't like it much and I would have ended up eating the whole lot myself...