....who you calling a fruitcake?

... I woulnd't call this a fruit cake.  

I'd call it, tradition, spice, breakfast, dessert, a snack, an excuse to bake with your family, a reason to remember loved ones...

It wouldn't be Christmas without Grandmaman's fruit cake.  When I was young I would make them for my teachers now I make them for parties and friends.  It's just not the holidays without fruit cake for dessert as a post holiday dinner snack with tea.  While I'm keeping the recipe a family secret... here are the steps:)

Grandmaman's Fruit Cake

Ginger

Cloves

Cinnamon

Allspice

Nutmeg

1 stick of butter

(I know you are always supposed to bake with unsalted butter but we've always used salted so that's what I'm sticking with)

2 eggs

Flour

Sugar

      Baking powder

         Glaceed fruits

(These are optional.  I don't personally like them but what's a "fruit cake" without fruit? A spice cake!  That's the way I like them.... all spice..no fruit.

Mix the flour, baking powder, spices and sugar together.  They spices look so pretty!

  Add the butter and eggs and glaceed fruits.  My mother and I made 7 cakes!  4 with fruits and 3 without. :)  Now the fun part starts. You COULD use a spoon to mix everything together but we use our hands! Who needs a spoon when you have two hands.  Ready...set...squish between your fingers!

At first it feels cold because of the eggs, then it feels greasy because of the butter, then you start to feel the velvety softness of the flour and the graininess of the sugar.  As they mix together they lose their individual textures and turn into a sticky blob of delicious dough.

Finger licking allowed.  In fact, finger licking almost mandatory at this point.

The dough should mix into a moist but not sticky dough that you can pat into a ball.  Butter and flour a loaf pan and pat the dough into the pan, making sure all the corners of filled in.  I brushed egg wash on the top of the "spices only" cakes.  It added a little shine to them.  These cakes bake at a low heat (below 300 degrees) for over an hour, leaving your house/apartment, studio smelling of sugar and spice and everything nice!

***

On another note, my father has recently convinced me to sign up for my second half marathon.  (I ran my first this past November with my dad.  He was nice enough to be my pacer.. see picture!)  Thinking I needed a motivator to keep me running through the winter I signed up for The National Half Marathon is on March 20th.

http://www.nationalmarathon.com/

I have3 months to show myself I can beat my first half marathon time and still find time to COOK!  Training alone as it turns out is pretty hard so I've signed up to run with a training group at a local running store.

Tomorrow is my first "track practice" at 6:50 AM.  Not only do I not yet consider myself a true "runner" but I am definitely not a morning person yet... Time for bed! 

A special thanks to my iPhone for taking pretty good pictures for this blog while I was waiting for a new memory card for my camera.