On Fruitcake.

Let’s talk, Sugar. Here in the Southern empire, sugar is not only a form of address but also a baking ingredient. Everyone knows that. What everyone doesn’t know or appreciate are the variations of the sugar ingredient which are such integral elements in the cuisine here. If the United States average consumption of refined sugar is 65 pounds per person per year then maybe we ought to pay some attention to this. Not only do the food people sneak sugar into our diet but they positively bury us at holidays. To name one confection, what would fruitcake be without sugar? Yes, I know there are sugar substitutes, but that promotion seems like a diversionary tactic in the larger campaign to manipulate our taste buds so that even a conscious foray away from sugar still trains our brain for sweet expectations. It’s as if they know they’ll get you in the end anyway.

Back to fruitcake. If you want to create your own for a holiday you had better plan 10 weeks in advance. I am not kidding around. That beauty has to mellow and macerate. Like any good infusion it requires time for the molecules to meld, migrate and intermingle so that the sophisticated complexity of the flavor is the big payoff and not just the sweetened gumdrop bomb of a boat anchor that many recipes have become. If your recipe doesn’t require ageing, well… forget it. It’s not fruitcake. It might be something else but it’s not fruitcake by any stretch even though the title may call it Grandma’s recipe. Grandma was faking it if this was her style.

As for ingredients, it’s basically butter, flour and sugar with “amendments” as the county extension agent likes to call them. From a 1:1:1 ratio for those ingredients there are all kinds of ups and downs that allow versions to be called “light” or “French” or “Irish” to name a few. Yes, you can add honey, eggs, water, nuts, candied fruit, dried fruit, salt, alcohol, baking soda, fruit juice, spices, flavor extracts and zest to make it a signature rendition but good old sugar is the engine. It’s also true that calories are driving this bus. You can forget the food pyramid when fruitcake is on the menu. Thanks to all that sweetness you can offer yourself up to the primitive revelry of the pleasure center of the brain. Whether you are using refined sugar, confectioner’s sugar, demerara, sucanat, muscovado, jaggery, piloncilo or turbinado is entirely up to you. Each variation has its own chemistry and provides its own proportion of molasses (and other elements of unrefined cane) in allegiance to its native origins.

Whatever you do, don’t think that it can go from oven to table after cooling or even after an overnight in the refrigerator. It has to sit and settle to become what it is supposed to be and to be fairly appreciated. Can you sense a metaphor there: something to do with youth and experience? It is, after all, sweetness of the highest order, Darling!

Many hugs,

Celeste