The Fruit Cake Lady

I rarely bake at home. As I am more of a hot kitchen cook than a baker, Christmastime is the only time of the year when the baker in me works overtime and prepares its annual, limited edition fruit cakes.

Don't get me wrong, baking is something that I enjoy doing, but, working on fruit cakes every year goes against my stand on food innovations and trendy cooking. It is, for a fact, such an old traditional baked product that, to me, gets a little too boring for my taste.

I grew up witnessing the preparation of fruit cakes by my mother. Since elementary grade, I have joined her in the procurement of the ingredients necessary to create this product. It is such a joy going to our old reliable supplier in Chinatown and bringing home with us the candied fruits and packaging materials needed for my mom's cakes. Mom (whom I secretly call the Fruit Cake lady), would set aside weekends to create these treats which were reserved for our family and close friends. As traditional as fruit cakes can be, the loaf format is always made and about a hundred cakes will be given away. My role as the able assistant would be to monitor the oven, wrap the finished products, write on the cards and ensure that each and everyone on the list gets their share.

Eventually, I took over the baking. Though Mom and I would still do our annual Chinatown visit for the raw materials, I was left to do the baking since Mom had just become too busy (and lazy!)to work on it. Trusting my baking skills, making the cakes were a challenge given that we had a small, home-type oven which can only fit a maximum of 10 loaves at one time. A days' yield would sometimes only total a maximum of 60 cakes given the small oven.

Up until now, we still have that small oven. Somehow, we continue to keep the same oven, as it is only maximized during Christmastime. Using the same recipe, I have reformatted the fruit cakes, making it in round formats, minis and bars, but, at the end of the day, it still goes back to the basic loaf format as Mom used to make. I have proposed several other products to Mom in place of the fruit cake, you know, maybe some coffee streusel bars or rugelach, or probably a chocolate rum cake -just so we could provide variety and something new to our recipients, but no, Mom wouldn't oblige. She insists that our fruit cakes are most awaited and there can be no other food gift coming from us except that.

I really do not know whether her friends and relatives are just being polite, but what I do know is, this year, it is fruit cake that we will give once again. I am amazed that it has reached Canada, Hongkong and the US. Despite my protests, we have had orders from a few friends and relatives. If I am lucky, maybe next year, it'll be an all new product altogether. Maybe.

Happy Holidays!