Can you remember the first time you ever tasted a fruit cake?

Can you remember the last time you ever tasted a fruit cake?

For many people I know the first time was usually the last time for sampling what has become the most maligned holiday gift ever … with the exception of the tie … and socks … and underwear.

Maybe I’m the exception, but I actually like fruit cake. It started when I was just a young boy and basically stems from my willingness to eat just about anything, which unfortunately at my age now doesn’t quite have the same effect on me as it did back then, or maybe I should say it has a greater impact when I do. You know what I’m talking about.

Anyway, my maternal grandmother was the fruit-cake lady. LOL (Funnier in more ways then one).

Anyway! Grandma was crazy about making fruit cakes. LOL (Hope my mom doesn’t read this article).

ANYWAY! My grandmother actually handed those out fruit cakes as gifts. We’re talking 11 kids remember? This, of course, led to the term we are all familiar with today called re-gifting!

Someone was always bold enough to open one of grandma’s fruit cakes during our little get-togethers and needless to say after 10 to 15 other people have asked me, “Have you tried Grandma’s fruit cake yet?” I was destined to dive in. And usually I was the only one who really had a whole piece (after everybody picked out the cherries). Most of the family didn’t eat any or very little of Grandma’s gift — but for me it was like a fruit cake paradise. LOL

The fruit cake has been around for a long time. And some have REALLY been around for a long time. LOL The earliest recipe from ancient Rome lists pomegranate seeds, pine nuts, and raisins that were mixed into barley mash. In the Middle Ages, honey, spices, and preserved fruits were added. Fruit cakes soon proliferated all over Europe. Fruitcake (or fruit cake) is a cake made with chopped candied fruit and/or dried fruit, nuts, and spices, and (optionally) soaked in spirits. So that doesn’t sound so bad … does it? Usually anything with booze it it would be enough to get the Irishmen in our house off the couch and into the kitchen wolfing it down. Now that I think about it, maybe Grandma used cheep booze? Maybe that’s why I loved eating so much of it when I was kid. LOL

This article is making me bust a gut all over thinking about fruit cake and family — but isn’t that what the holidays are all about. … Merry Christmas!

Here’s seeing you, in Ohio Country!