Fruit Cake is Christmas

This posting is for all the people out there who hate Fruit Cake.

As a child I hated Fruit Cake. But every year my mother worked so hard to find the money (we were poor in those days) for the ingredients for her Fruit Cakes. She spent an entire week, cutting up the nuts and fruits, since back in those days they did not come already cut up. She labored hard the night before, cutting the papers for the tins and then greasing them up with Crisco. On Fruit Cake day, I was pressed into service and helped her stir the thick unstirrable nut laden batter. My arms ached by dinner time. All this for some awful brick thing, she called cake.

When I left home in the 1970's my dad became the cake stirring servant. By this time, he had been through open heart surgery and subsequently retired. Now, mom had a nut and fruit mincer also. But, now she faced arthritis in her hands and sholders and making her fruitcakes was still an all week long affair that left her exhausted and frazzeled.

Mom is now unable to care for herself and no longer makes fruit cakes. As I get older, I try harder and harder to hold onto some of her Christmas Traditions. This week, I bought the fruits and nuts, greased the pans and paper liners, made the stiff batter and as I write this, I am baking 10 of mom's glorious fruit cakes. Somewhere along the way, I even came to love eating Fruit Cake. Merry Christmas and Hold Fast To Those Traditions!