★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
December 27, 2012

★~  Today Quote: Your friends are the fruitcake of your life – some are nutty, some are soaked in alcohol, some firm, some sweet, but all together, great to have in your life! – unknown

★~ Fruitcake Day:

Blame the fruitcake plague on the cheap sugar that arrived in Europe from the colonies in the 16th century.

Some enlighten soul discovered that fruit could be preserved by soaking it in successively greater concentrations of sugar, intensifying color and flavor. Not only could native plums and cherries be conserved, but heretofore unavailable fruits were soon being imported in candied form from other parts of the world. Having so much sugar-laced fruit engendered the need to dispose of it in some way—thus the fruitcake. By the early 19th century, the typical recipe was heavy as lead with citrus peel, pineapples, plums, dates, pears, and cherries.

Whether or not anyone actually enjoyed eating it, fruitcake persisted, finding fertile soil in the New World, especially in places where fresh fruit was difficult to come by. Nuts were introduced into the recipe, probably because America’s foremost fruitcake makers—Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana, Texas, and Claxton Bakery of Claxton, Georgia—were located in rural Southern communities with a surplus of nuts. The expression “nutty as a fruitcake” was coined in 1935.

In spite of the size and preeminence of America’s fruitcake industry, the product’s popularity has drastically declined over the years. Some blame Johnny Carson, who found in the maligned cake a rich source of jokes: “The worst gift is fruitcake. There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other.” Others point to an aging demographic that finds grandmothers sending cakes to their grown grandchildren, who privately throw them away, or even do it publicly at events like the annual Great Fruitcake Toss in Manitou Springs, Colorado, where, if you don’t own a fruitcake, you can rent one for 25 cents. Further evidence of fruitcake’s unpopularity: Ever seen one on a restaurant menu?

If, as the bakeries claim, sales continue to grow, you’ve got to wonder where all those fruitcakes are going. Anecdotal evidence indicates that a substantial number are sent to Japan, where customers appreciate the dense texture, jaw-aching sweetness, and surfeit of colorful fruit.

For more facts about Fruitcakes click here...Below (Did You Know) you will find a review of the bakeries that sell the best of the best Fruitcakes.

★~ Snowflake Day:

A non-denominational winter celebration, created after the U.N. abolished Religious holidays. Snowflake Day is distinguished by the exchange of care-satchels, the ceremonial lighting of the snow man, and the celebratory Snowflake Day cabbage-patch dance. Lamb tacos are the traditional snowflake food. It’s just not Snowflake Day without a lamb taco.  The central figure of the holiday is Snowflake Jake, a cheery pirate who gives spices upon spices to good little boys and girls, traveling the world on a pirate ship. Children listen for the cannonballs that signal his arrival.

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1903 – The barbershop quartet favorite, Sweet Adeline, was sung for the first time — in New York City. The song was composed by Henry Armstrong with the words of Richard Gerard. The title of the song came from a theatre marquee that promoted the great operatic soprano, Adelina Patti. Now female barbershop quartets call themselves Sweet Adelines.

♥~ 1946 – The American team won the Davis Cup for the first time since 1938. The competition was held at Melbourne, Australia.

♥~ 1971 –  America’s favorite beagle, Snoopy, appeared atop his doghouse on the cover of the December 27th, 1971, issue of Newsweek magazine.  The “Merry Christmas” cover drawn by Charles Schulz also featured Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, and Woodstock.  Other pop-culture figures to appear on Newsweek’s cover during ’71 included Mick Jagger, golfer Lee Trevino, and the cast of “All in the Family.”

♥~ 1978 – The South Pole had a record high temperature of 7.5° F (-13.6° C).

♥~ 1980 – The John Lennon hit, (Just Like) Starting Over, began a five-week stay at #1 on the pop charts. The hit was from the album, Double Fantasy.

★~ Born Today:

♥~ 1901 – Marlene Dietrich (Maria Magdelene von Losch) actress: The Blue Angel, 1st German talkie; Morocco, Kismet, Destry Rides Again, Judgment at Nuremberg, Witness for the Prosecution; died May 6, 1992

♥~ 1822 – Louis Pasteur  Raise a glass of wine (or milk, if you prefer) to toast the birthday of scientist Louis Pasteur Pasteur lent his name to the pasteurization process of reducing organisms in food, especially dairy products and wine.  He also developed a rabies vaccine.

♥~ 1931 – Scotty Moore Rock and Roll Hall of Fame musician:guitar: Elvis Presley’s guitarist from 1954 to 1958 [Blue Suede Shoes, Hound Dog, All Shook Up]; ranked inRolling Stone magazine’s 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time

♥~ 1941 – Mike Pinder musician: piano; songwriter, singer: group: The Moody Blues:

♥~ 1943 – Cokie Roberts TV news: ABC News Nightline, senior news analyst: National Public Radio

★~ Did You Know:

Below (Did You Know)  you will find a review of the bakeries that sell the best of the best Fruitcakes.

★~ Claxton Bakery offers two different fruitcake versions, one light and one dark, each weighing two pounds. Instead of the traditional ring configuration, these cakes are brick-shaped, making them easy to throw. The paler one is something like a pound cake with candied fruits. The darker, its top annoyingly paved with raisins, has only slightly more flavor.

★~ The Collin Street Bakery’s (Corsicana, Texas)  fruitcakes are consider the best of the best by many International fruitcake connoisseurs (including my own sweet mother and dearly departed Joe) There recipe includes the world’s finest Texas pecans, grown and shelled locally. The price of these Fruitcakes indicates just how proud this family run bakery is of there fruitcakes. Very proud, indeed.

★~ Baker Maid fruitcake (Poplarville, Mississippi,) comes in a handy one-pound size. Review however were disappointed by the fruitcakes chemical aftertaste but did point out it could  probably be banished by a slug of eggnog.

★~ Confirming the Japanese admiration for fruitcake, the department store Takashimaya offers it year-round. Each gift-wrapped box contains 16 miniature gold ingots of cake, and the list of ingredients makes a refreshingly short read, with no numbered dyes, soy lecithin, or mono- and diglycerides. Though this cake depends too much on raisins, reviewers were pleased with the simplicity of the flavor and its slightly bitter edge of the fruitcake.

★~ Probably out of deference to Bible-thumpers, most of the aforementioned Southern examples are teetotaler cakes. Most of the reviewers agreed the alcohol-bearing versions are inherently superior, since the booze neutralizes the cloying sweetness. Not surprisingly, nearly all these fruitcakes are made by monks. The most notorious of these comes from the Trappist monks of the Abbey of Gethsemani near Louisville. It has been said, the mystic poet Thomas Merton ended his days at this abbey, while popping his final fruitcake into the oven. What a way to go. . . The competing cake produced by monks at the Holy Cross Abbey in Berryville, Virginia, furnishes a stouter alcoholic belt, as the brochure reveals, “…The Brothers add a generous measure of fine sherry wine. After slow and gentle baking, each cake is laced with traditional brandy and topped with a honey glaze.”

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Do you like Fruitcake? Or as El Morno friend Stevie wrote last year do you pass on even a sniff….

I do not like fruit cake,
This dessert I will never bake
I will not eat it with a rake
I will not eat a small flake
I will not eat it when I wake
I will not eat it while on break
The thought of eating it makes me shake
The flavor makes my stomach ache
Do not send it as a gift
Because it will not even be sniffed

El Morno friend Debbie’s Mom makes fruitcake cookies. It’s a holiday tradition in their family. A fruitcake cookie could be tasty. Some El Morners like Panatone, which according to El Morno’s Aussie friend Antoinette, is similar to  fruitcake in a different sort of way, and has also been around since the time of the ancients. Similar in a different sort of way could be nice. I don’t care for Fruitcake despite the fact that I love an abundance of sweetness and nuts. I do however love the Fruitcakes in my life, each and everyone of you!

We had an all night teen party (who sleeps?) at our abode last night and around midnight they decided to make bacon. I was on my way to bed but immediately texted the kitchen for a piece of bacon and then wondered if they would be popping corn at 2am. Noone can sleep through the smell of bacon (is there a bacon alarm clock?) or popcorn. We will all be tired today but I’m getting kind of use to it.

Fruit Cakes and Flakes–is today a great day or what! Or what!!!

Odd Loves Company,