I don’t particularly care for fruit cake, and I suspect you don’t either. Yes, I’ll eat it if a relative brings it in person to a family gathering. I’ll smile and just drink lots of liquid (preferably whiskey or wine, but tea, Martinelli’s sparkling apple juice or water will do). We’ve all had some really bad fruitcakes, especially around the holidays.
However, a home baker or two have enlightened me that fruitcake (and fruit cakes) can be utterly delicious. They just need to be moist, we’ve realized. It seems quite a few people like to gift fruitcakes to each other during the holidays (whether they’ve baked them at home or bought them from a store.) I’m not inclined to bake one to gift to someone, but I can start to envision the appeal of eating one on a cold winter’s day, sipping hot cocoa laced with whiskey alongside..
So I was nervous, but willing, to dive into a cookbook preview of Fruit Cake: Recipes for the Curious Baker (via Amazon; affiliate link) The author, Jason Schreiber, is a food stylist from New York City. You might note that he managed to get a foreword to this cookbook from baking and cooking queen Martha Stewart herself.
The “gimmick” here is the author shatters misconceptions about the reviled fruitcake. He shares recipes for fresh, flavorful cakes that incorporate fruit in some way – such as Pomegranate Molasses Cake, Raspberry Tea Cake, Fig, Port and Chocolate Cake, Blood Orange Bee Sting Cake, and Roasted Plum Sorbet Cake.
There are several unique creations here, such as Polenta Pound Cake with Spiced Mandarins; Passionfruit Lime Pavlova; and Blueberry Ginger Studmuffins.
The food photography is (obviously) gorgeous. I might implore you to gift this cookbook, instead of a dry storebought fruitcake, to your baking enthusiast relatives this Christmas!
-Carrie
