Tradition! Tradition.

When I was a student at BYU a hundred years ago, my Mom asked me what I wanted for Christmas.  I told her that all I wanted was some of her gumdrop-filled fruitcake.  Generally, I am like the rest of the world and don't like fruitcake, but my Mom's is terrific.  Well, now that Mom is 90 it has been a couple of years since she has made it, breaking a family tradition that has gone on longer than I can say. Someone needed to pick up the gauntlet and carry on.

My sister, Shawna who is a very good cook, said, "Why should I make it?  No one will let me eat any." She's right. We won't let her have any because all she does is pick out the gumdrops and leaves the rest. She was banned from having some a long time ago.

Several years ago I decided that I ought to try making the fruitcake to keep the traditional Christmas favorite alive. I got the recipe, read about all the ingredients and the instructions on how to make it and said, "Are you kidding me! This is way too much work." I filed the recipe away.

A few years ago my daughter, Julie, decided she would carry on the family tradition, but after reading the recipe and instructions, she also filed the recipe away and gave up on the idea.  This year, now that I am retired and have more time, I thought I had better try it again while Mom is still around to answer any questions I might have so as to get a satisfactory finished product. I decided to be brave and make the attempt.  Here are the results:

First I assembled the ingredients.
This is only part of what is needed.

Then I used the two recipes I had from Mom and as I went along, I recorded all the instructions and actual sizes of the "large jar of grape jelly," or "one big bottle of maraschino cherries" so I would know exactly how much to buy if I ever decided to make this again. This is a very old family recipe and over the years items are packaged differently so what was "large" once is not the same size now, i.e., Hershey candy bars. I also recorded all the little inside tips Mom gave me. (I had to call her several times during the process.)

I finally had everything ready to start. I could even use my brand new Kitchen Aid stand-up mixer for the first ingredients - until I started adding the fruit, gumdrops, nuts and flour.

The hardest part was cutting up the gumdrops, they are so sticky.

The maraschino cherries took a bit of time too. 

The rest was just a lot of measuring, dumping and stirring to complete. 

 Three hours after I started, the fruitcakes were in pans and in the oven.

The recipe called for eight eggs and seven cups of flour.

There is so much batter, I had to use the cold-pack canner to mix it in.

It was nice to have two ovens,

one convection and 

one conventional

so I could cook them all

at the same time. 

 At least the batter tasted good and I am hopeful that the final result will have been worth it.

 Another hour and a half in the oven and voila - we have the family traditional fruitcake.

After it cools, Mom wraps the cakes in "Handi-Wipes" soaked in pineapple juice, then in Reynolds Wrap. 

So did I.

I hope it is as good as Mom's. She makes hers in October to have ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas but she assured me doing it this late will be okay. My brother, Dick, who is serving a mission in Austria with his wife, Carole, loves this fruitcake, so that will be the test. I sent him a loaf today.