Fruitcake

The first word that comes to mind on Valentine's Day is not fruitcake.

But that's the word for the day this year.

Yesterday I finally got together all the ingredients necessary to make my mother's fruitcake recipe. It took some doing ~ my daughter gave me several containers of candied fruit she had stowed away. Over the course of several days it took me three trips to the store to remember grape jelly, grape juice, and white raisins. I usually have everything else on hand, though not always in the quantities I needed for this project.

It took two hours to mix the batter and four hours for the cake to bake. It cooled overnight and today I paired it with apple slices and wrapped it tightly in foil so it can "cure."

Fruitcake is for Christmas, right? And I thought about it then but couldn't get everything together in time.

When the kids were little I tried to do all the holiday baking in a timely fashion before the third week in December. As they got older life got busy, and one year we made Christmas cookies between Christmas and New Year's when we were all home and had the time to do it together. It was fun. The world didn't end. It was clear that self-imposed limitations weren't always the best idea.

So when my daughter and I started talking about how much we wished we had some fruitcake, it made sense to see about making one. While I didn't exactly plan to have it made for Valentine's Day, it fits that today is the day the fruitcake is wrapped up and on the shelf.

I think it will be ready to slice by St. Patrick's Day ~