FRUITCAKE101 ( In the beginning......)

 There MUST have been fruitcake......I am positive of that. Fruitcake has a bad rap. The best way to make fruitcake is with good ingredients, the best butter, the best brandy, and always make it during fruitcake weather. That's what my mother always called it, you know those dark, dreary, gloomy, windy days, right near the end of October, early November. 
    I make fruitcake to give away for Christmas. I make three different kinds each year. This year it will be a "Bohemian Dark Chocolate Fruitcake", a "White Ginger Fruitcake" and a "Dark Fruitcake." Wherever possible I substitute dried fruit, instead of the candied stuff, but I still use the candied  here and there. The best way to deal with candied fruit is to wash it...wash it very well, to get rid of all the sticky, gooey, ikky stuff.  In my fruitcakes, I have dried blueberries, real dried cherries, dried cranberries, ginger, almonds, real dried pineapple, etc.

HEre are the three batches of fruit, all sloshing around in a cup (each) of Napoleon Brandy, with about 1/2 cup of orange juice. They will steep away for a day ( or two), making the kitchen smell like brandy. When baked the alcohol will burn off. I like adding the orange juice to mellow everything.
    Stay tuned for addition 2, next time.........when we start baking up these cakes....no sampling the brandy, in the meantime...