If you are new to this party, please take the time to read and follow the instructions for participating in Vintage Thingies Thursday, click HERE. I try and keep things fairly simple, so please make sure you follow the instructions. Please only ONE link per week.
This week, I want to share a Christmas card that was found in my grandma's cookbook. She kept it, and I believe it was sent to her from one of her cousins. It sits in my grandma's china cabinet this holiday season.
I love the front of this card, shows a cute kitchen scene with a fruitcake for the holidays.
On the inside is a fruitcake recipe. This is not the one my grandma used, but she did save this one. I love it.
My grandma always made fruitcake around Thanksgiving and she would wrap it up and she stored it in the hot water heater closet until Christmas. I don't recall liking fruitcake as a child and I am quiet sure I don't care for it today either. I took her old recipe, (not this one) but her original recipe and thought I'd dip my hand in making this Christmas treasure.
My vintage Soreno Anchor Hocking aquamarine mixing bowl works great for holding all of this candied fruit. Uggh....what a sticky mess! Trust me!
Now, I love raisins by themselves. I can not stand them mixed with or in other things. See the small ones on the right...that is dried currants.....and oh. the. smell. And not in a good way to me!
This is candied ginger. Now a small bottle of this at Walmart was over $10.00. A quick trip to Central Market and I got what I needed for $1.26. Speaking of Central Market, I needed some Mace spice.....expensive! At central market, it was $46.99 per pound. Luckily what I needed only cost me only 46 cents.
Add the nuts and rest of the goodies and this is what you have.......except for the most special ingredient.... BRANDY
Here is is all ready to rest for 24 hours....soaking up the Brandy......Oh. The. Smell. I don't drink and don't like the smell....this was quickly covered with plastic wrap and left alone until the rest of the steps took place and baked.
So there you have it, a vintage bowl holding ingredients from a vintage recipe that holds lots of memories. However, I won't be eating any of this...I don't like fruitcake..... What about you?? Is it one of your holiday favorites or something you'd rather not see.... or
ahem...smell!
Posts
Hi Suzanne...I remember cards like that...I actually like fruit cake, but then I grew up in a bakery.
ReplyDeleteSusan
I love fruit cake so save your part for me.
ReplyDeleteHi Suzanne! That recipe card is adorable. You must be so happy to still have your Grandma's recipe. I think we all miss our departed loved ones even more over the holidays. Thanks for hosting.
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Susan and Bentley
Hi Suzanne,
ReplyDeleteWhat a charming card!!! And I love fruitcake for the holidays...although I haven't had it for a long while since my hubby isn't too fond of it. But you just might have convinced me to bake some for the holidays this year! :) Once again, thanks for hosting a lovely link party. Happy to link up when I can! :)
Cheers,
Jessie
Love recipe cards. :) My Father in Law loves frutcake and mincemeat pies and all that stuff. I like fruitcake, too. :) Neat!!!
ReplyDeleteYou'd have to force feed it to me. It just has no appeal I'm afraid.
ReplyDeleteHowever, if you're my Secret Santa and were going to send me fruit cake please ignore what I just posted.
ReplyDeleteAnd Betty....you crack me up!!!
ReplyDeleteI love the fact that you have your Grandma's recipe card in her cabinet. Nothing beats using her recipe instead. I pull out all my Grandmothers this time of year too.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fruitcake fan either but it definitely brings back memories of my Grandma to! In fact, I posted not long ago about finding her recipes...one of which was, yes, fruitcake. My daughters choir once sang a song about a fruitcake that kept getting passed from one person to another as a a gift and finally it was given back to the person who gave it first...and they used it as a doorstop! lol
ReplyDeleteNancy
Not a fruitcake fan at all. Still it's pretty in your vintage bowl and I do love the Christmas card! hugs, Linda
ReplyDeleteoh yum- especially the candied ginger- great paryt!
ReplyDeleteKaren
Hi Suzanne,
ReplyDeleteMy mother always made fruitcake at Christmas. It was the dark kind, and she put coffee in it. No cintrons though. Just the candied fruit. I liked it, but I don't make it. No one else in the house likes it. You always here the jokes about people getting a fruitcake for a gift, and not liking it. lol. I have a fruitcake ornament for the tree. So cute. Hope yours come out well!
Debbie
I'm the only one in my household that likes fruitcake so I don't make it but I look forward to a chunk of it every year that a friend sends me - so good!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the recipe for fruit cake, I make one but I'm never stoo happy, I'm going to try yours. Thank you for hosting and having me dear lady.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas, FABBY
Ah Memories...my Mom used to make fruitcake every year.
ReplyDelete*hugs*Deb
One day closer to Christmas and I've been busy decorating with lots of vintagey flair. I was able to link up my DIY Vintage Aluminum wreath-which is cheap & easy to do. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for hosting the party once more!
ReplyDeleteSuzanne,
ReplyDeleteYou are braver than me! I'd display the recipe but not try to make it. I'd be thinner if I didn't have a policy about baking things I won't eat. (The loaves I made for family in Connecticut smell so good it's killing me to be in my own kitchen. Will frosting fill it in If I cut out the middle? LOL)
But the smell notwithstanding, it sure is pretty! The vintage bowl gives that classic look to all the candied fruit!
While I'm not a fruitcake fan, I'd love an ornament like Debbie has. I agree, too cute!
Hello Suzanne, i have been away too long. I always love what you share so much. The card with the fruitcake recipe is a treasure. Your journey to make your grandmother's recipe is so involved. I have never made fruitcake because it isn't my fave either. However, I would bet I would LOVE this fruitcake for the meaning behind it alone. Smile. Good job preserving a wonderful Christmas memory in your family.
ReplyDeleteXO, Jeanne
I love that you are baking a memory and hope whoever eats your cake enjoys it. Central Market is the best. I got one whole nutmeg for 21 cents - instead of having to buy the whole tin. Don't have time to play this week, just wanted you to know your post made me smile.
ReplyDeleteHi Suzanne
ReplyDeleteHad to join in the fun! I hope my vintage aspen tree trunks count! xo, laura
What a great heirloom card to have...and obviously a recipe that a keeper, big time!
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting!
Cheers!
R
I have never had fruit cake. I don't think I have ever seen one in person before either.
ReplyDeleteYour grandmother's card is adorable. I love old greeting cards, especially from people I love. I have old Strawberry Shortcake cards from my great-grandmother in my daughter’s room.
Have a wonderful week!
I am a fan of white fruitcake, but that looks like a great recipe! Maybe I'll try the more trad one again!
ReplyDeleteRuth
I found some vintage recipes, too. Thanks for letting me share them at your party!!!
ReplyDeleteOh my, Suzanne! Not like fruitcake? Impossible. You have not tried the ones my sisters and I make :) Our recipe is quite different from yours, no overnight soaking and a lot more booze in the mixing! Of course, the alcohol evaporates in the baking process. But then we put brandy over the baked cakes, wrap them in cloth and then put in plastic bags in the fridge for several weeks. They. Are. Delicious. And still delicious even a year later. The brandy's alcohol content is gone by the time we eat the cakes; its purpose is to preserve the cakes. That's why people made fruitcakes in old days--it was a way of preserving the fruits. My mother was English, and we learned to make the cakes with her. But after she passed away we've been on our own and I think (I hope Mom is not listening!) our cakes have surpassed hers.
ReplyDeleteDon't you Texas girls buy your fruitcake from Corsicana, Texas at the Collin Street Bakery? That is the one I always got from a doctor I worked for. He was a native of your fine state. He also gave us fruit like grapefruits,oranges and lovely nuts from the state of Texas too! Hee Hee
ReplyDeleteAlways a treasure to stop by. I love your grandmothers cookbook find! Hugs Anne
Suzanne, I LOVE fruitcake!!! I hope you will keep showing us how to do it and maybe next year I will be brave enough to give it a try myself. Can you believe I have never made it myself? Each year my best friend's mom send some down from Canada, and I get to eat hers. LOVE LOVE LOVE it with a cup of hot tea.
ReplyDelete