Fruitcake

My mother-in-law missed the fruitcake-making class of Chef Annie because it was cancelled for some reasons. Since she really need to dispatch her kilos of glazed fruits and not to mention her desire to learn how to bake fruitcake, we gathered the guts to bake one two days ago. She searched for Heny Sison's fruitcake recipe on her clearbook files containing cut-outs from magazines and newspapers. Though she already had this tons of recipe books whether bought or given to her from US, I admire her passion of collecting more recipes on prints and even on product labels!

We gathered the fruits and nuts ingredients on the first day and geez, they almost weigh 2 kilos already! The instructions said that these need to be soaked in dark rum overnight. No wonder that those glazed fruits and nuts in the fruitcake have an alcoholic smell and taste of the rum. (Others used scotch whisky but we religiously followed the instructions coz it's our first time to bake this fruitcake.)

On the actual day we baked the fruitcake, we encountered a lot of blunders. We failed to read the last part of the instruction which we thought are only tips after it has been baked so we almost forgot to place a pan of hot water to avoid the cake from cracking while baking. Due to the various times we opened and closed the oven, the oven thermometer was accidentally dunked into the hot water. What we got was a busted thermometer and an uneven baking temperature! The 90-min baking time was shortened to 60 mins coz when we tried to check it out, it's already done a quarter before its alloted time. Whew! We almost missed placing the glazed fruits & nuts toppings!

But who would've thought these fruitcakes were baked by inexperienced and meager bakers like us? hehehe =) We let this cool off overnight and brushed it with dark rum the following day before storing it. This can last for 8 months or so. And the taste... it's not just an ordinary fruitcake! Really yummy, luscious and I love the smell. We're very happy of the results.

Some people hate fruitcakes. Perhaps its because of the low quality and commercialized fruitcakes they've tasted. For me, I've found this recipe that I learn to like and can fiddle with the variations of fruits, nuts, spices and rum used. Through practice, I can someday be known to make the best fruitcake in the clan. =)