December 31, 2008

I love fruit cakes. Seriously. And most of all, I love my Aunt Marth’s Fruitcake. Every year she makes a fruitcake for my family. She is almost 85 years old and has been making this family recipe for years. Each year my mom doles out just a enough fruit cake to get us thru the entire year. We ate the last 4 pieces that had been wrapped up and frozen on Dec 23rd because we knew Aunt Marth’s cake was waiting. But it wasn’t….. My uncle Kenny had died a few weeks earlier and Aunt Marth was behind with her Christmas cooking and baking. So she didn’t have a chance to mail the fruit cake. OMG. Christmas without her fruitcake???

But we had a plan. Friends of the family’s kids were coming home for Christmas. They lived in Fairmont, WV, Aunt Marth lives in Fairmont , WV…. they could connect. But Aunt Marth doesn’t drive and Aron and Sarah have a small baby….. wait, my cousin Barb could get off work early and connect with Aron and pass the cake. So Aunt Marth bundled up ( she wasn’t going to just let Barb carry it) and they met in the Food Lion Parking lot and the hand off was made. The cake drove over the snowy mountains and through the woods and arrived in Berkeley Springs Christmas Eve. Kathie called and told us the good news. But too late to come get it that night, we’d have to make a Christmas day run…. Drove over the hillside and went to Butch and Kathie’s home. ( Beautiful home!) There was the fruitcake…….. just in time for Christmas dinner…. but no….

You see, there is an added ingredient that Aunt Marth refuses to add, so mom has to add without telling her. Brandy… But you can’t just pour it on and eat it, you have to pour it on, wrap in cheesecloth, let it soak a few days, then eat.. It’s Christmas day. No brandy in the house. No cheesecloth in the house. Nothing is open Christmas day…. so on the drive to Bethany Beach the next day, we stop along the way and pick up the brandy and fruitcake. The next step happens ( documented above) The cake is soaking….. any day now we’ll be enjoying that brandy soaked cake!!!

PS- the cake always arrives in an old cookie tin and each year, mom sends the cookie tin back to Aunt Marth for the new fruitcake. Just another family tradition!

And to go along with it- some egg nog. I also love eggnog! Any recipe will do and here is the motherlode of recipes!!!