I have the book that has the fruit cakes covered in RI. I was also wondering how the heck that would work. I know the RI that I've always made for flowers and such were hard as rocks!

As for the fruitcake... That is actually a tradition in our family. My grama would make them at Easter then give one to each of her 3 sons at Xmas. Now, mind you they are the ONLY ones who would ever eat them. Im really not a fan of a food that's been homemade and sat for 8 months (in her attic no less) before getten eaten. But my dad LOVES them and he now makes them since my grama's incapacitation and passing. They keep them plain tho... no frosting or anything. eesh It's turned into a family joke tho LOL

lauramw71 : real rich fruitcakes NEED to sit around and mature for a while - that's how the tastes develop and deepen. They won't go mouldy if well wrapped and have a good old dash of alcohol in them - promise! I keep mine in the storage cupboard, a minimum of 6 weeks, but I'll be making my Christmas cakes at the beginning of next month, and have no worries about them, I know they will be fabulous by the time they are eaten!

I too use real egg whites and lemon juice in my Royal icing. It's the way I was taught, and no, I don't give it a second thought.

In the interests of global education here is my Fruit Cake recipe - it is absolutely gorgeous, though I say so myself, has been a year or so in the making as I've adapted it many times to get to this final lushness.

2lb of fruit made up from sultanas, chopped apricots, mixed peel and undyed glace cherries
The night before soak the fruit in a mixture of brandy, glycerine and cold tea - ideally a couple of days before so the fruit is all juicy. I use a whole little bottle of glycerine, about a sixth of a bottle of brandy and a mug of very strong tea - some people substitute the tea for guinness. You musn't skip the fruit soaking stage or the fruit will be gritty and horrid in the cake.

8oz organic butter
8oz soft brown sugar
4 large organic eggs
8oz plain flour (must be plain or fruit will sink)
grated rind of one lemon and one orange (really does notice)
two large tablespoon dollops of golden syrup
generous amounts of nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon (I use about 2tsps of each - perhaps a bit more)

Beat the room temp butter until it's almost white.
Add the sugar and keep on beating until its again almost white
Add the eggs one at a time, beating in between.
FOLD the flour in (not beating)
Add the rest of the ingredients and stir in.

If you want a dark looking cake add treacle.

Cook the cake at 140 degrees C in a fan oven for about three hours. The tin must be lined and towards the end of the cooking I put tin foil over the top of the cake to stop it darkening too much. I don't add any further alchohol as the fruit should be moist enough to keep the cake really soft and gorgeous.

Once the cake is cooked, leave it to cool in the tin and then either wrap it in waxed paper or cover it in marzipan straight away. I don't 'fee'd the cake any more alcohol, it doesn't need it. The marziapn should be about 1cm thick all the way round the cake to 'seal' it against the air and keep it moist. Then cover it either in fondant or royal icing to be traditional. If you're doing it properly you'd do about three layers of royal icing, but the cheaty way is just to spread royal icing all over the cake and then poke it with a knife to get little peaks that look 'just like snow.'

This cake is VERY gorgeous and I haven't given this recipe to anyone else before. You guys sounded so cute though going on about British fruit cakes I couldn't resist - let me know what you think of it if you make it by PM'ing me!

thank you emmascakes....
and already some questions:

how big is that small bottle of glycerine: 4oz? 6oz? ??oz

golden syrup is --?--
treacle is --?--
glace cherries are --?--
what kind of tea: earl grey? english breakfast? etc. (tho' the guinness sounds more my cup of tea)

and a fan oven is a convection oven?

Golden syrup is corn syrup
Treacle is molasses
Glace cherries are a preserved candied cherry (not sure if you have them or what they're called in the states)
convection oven is a fan oven.
Tea we just use any standard tea bag off the supermarket shelf but make sure the tea is strong

Can't help with the size of the glycerine bottle

Heres my recipe
Make at least 6-8 weeks before icing. Longer if you can

Grease and double line a 7 inch square or an 8 inch round tin and preheat oven to 275F/ 140C

12 oz plain flour
2 teaspoons mixed spice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
9oz butter
9oz soft brown sugar
2 tablespoons black treacle
6 eggs
2lb mixed dried fruit (currants, sultanas, rasins)
6oz chopped mix peel
4oz chopped nuts
4oz chopped glace cherries
1/4 bottle of alcohol (either brandy, whiskey or sherry) plus extra for 'feeding'(i usually use brandy)

soak the dried fruit, cherries and mixed peel in the alcohol overnight. Sift the flour with the spices. In a seperate bowl cream the butter, sugar and treacle together, beat in whole eggs 1 at a time adding a tablespoon of the sifted ingrediets with each. Stir in mixed fruit mix and nuts. fold in remaining dry ingredients. transfer to prepared tin and smooth top with a knife. bake in centre of oven for 4 - 4 1/2 hours until a skewer inserted in middle of cake comes out clean. Leave in tin for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire cooling rack. When cold wrap in greasproof paper and aluminium foil and store somewher dark. Once a week unwrap cake and feed it by drizzling a couple of tablespoons of alcohol over it then wrap up again. When required cover with marzipan and royal icing or fondant. As mentioned in an earlier post you can actually decorate several weeks ahead which gives you plenty of time if you want to do a really intricate design.

This cake does get better with keeping. It really needs at least 6 weeks to allow the flavours to mature and develop but the longer the better. I've already made my Christmas cake

Does anyone serve their fruitcake with Rum sauce? My Grandmother used to do that...is that tradtion or just something my grandmother did to make us eat her cake

Don't know about you guys but here in Barbados we grind our fruits for our fruit cake( which we call black cake by the way) and some soak the ground fruit in rum for a good few months.

Here's a cake you crack open with a hammer:
http://jellybeans.ca/html/cakes_24.html

I had written to her a long time ago about it. It was $25 then, now I see it's $35. Anyhow, she said she hollows out a hole in a cake and puts all kinds of candies in the center of the cake. Covers the cake in buttercream. Then she makes a chocolate shell in a bowl, and when it's hard she covers the cake with the shell.

The glycerine bottle is about three tablespoons in total I would think - give or take. It really helps plump the fruit up and keeps the whole cake yummy moist. I personally wouldn't use treacle (molasses) in a fruit cake, it makes it very dark looking and taste a bit burnt for my liking.

My DH is insisting I try making these. Royal icing is his favorite and he also loves marzipan.

I think these 2 recipes both sound very yummy (and quite unlike the horrid things my mother made and called fruitcakes) so I am going to make both and see what the hubby likes.

Good I just hope he has the patience to wait the 6 weeks for them to mature. You can eat them earlier but they just don't have the same taste

When I was a little girl, at Thanksgiving my family would visit my mother's aunt who lived in southern Louisiana. On the back porch, Aunt Mildred kept the fruit cakes she had made in the spring (7 or 8 months earlier) to which she had often added, and would continue to add, a generous amount of bourbon. I am guessing they were made using a recipe very similar to the recipes that Emma and Miss Baritone have so kindly provided. My Uncle Junior (cute southern name for a Cajun Frenchman whose given name was Adeles) loved those fruit cakes and so did my mother. They called them "Drunk Fruit Cakes" and we always took one home with us to have at Christmas. Thanks for calling to mind a pleasant memory from my childhood

I love fruitcake and the darker the better except I dont care for the dried fruits so I usually leave them out and add more raisins and nuts. As for the ri if it is thick then it stays softer on the inside and only the outer layer is like candy. Being canadian and of irish/english descent we still have alot of the same traditions as the uk. As for the top layer of a wedding cake I am finding that some brides like to keep the top tier for their first anniversary dinner. (nice tradition in my mind).

Miss Baritone - treacle tastes 'burnt' to me when it's straight out of the tin, I just don't like the taste, nothing to do with the cake being overcooked. I use brown soft sugar to get a brown look without the taste of treacle.

a bit off topic but still about fruitcakes (thanks SugarFrosted for jogging the memory)...

some may want to read the short story (tho' on the longish side)

A Christmas Memory

by Turman Capote

in which he talks about a relative of his and how his fondest memory of her is how they made fruitcakes together.

(have kleenex handy!)