Photo courtesy of FruitCakeRecipes.com
The royal wedding is just days away, and everyone wants to know every detail. One of the few things we know for sure is that there will be a traditional wedding fruitcake as one of the spotlight desserts at the royal wedding celebrations.
Now before you shudder at the thought of fruitcake, that stereotypical bad holiday gift that sits in the freezer, keep in mind that fruitcake has had a big time makeover. Why else would stylish Kate Middleton include it in her big day if it wasn’t open for a modern makeover?
Just take a look at some of the scrumptious flavor blends found in today’s moist and mouthwatering fruitcakes:
Apricot and coconut
Cherry pineapple
Brazil nut
Guava chiffon
Date and whiskey
Kentucky bourbon
Yes, these last two provide a fruitcake with a kick. And when you look into fruitcake recipes for your royal wedding-watching party, or for your bridesmaid breakfasts, bridal shower or afternoon tea-themed party even after the royal wedding, you’ll find that fruitcakes come in two main shades: light and dark.
Light fruitcakes include paler ingredients such as almonds, sugar, corn syrup, pineapple, golden raisins and apricots.
Dark fruitcakes contain brown sugar, molasses, dark raisins, dates, prunes and walnuts.
I like to use lighter fruitcake recipes for morning events, and darker fruitcakes work for morning and later times.
Both shades are equally sweet, soft and moist, and in a modern take on fruitcake, they’re being made with a smaller variety of ingredients…not jammed with a dozen different colors and textures, looking and feeling ‘busy’ and overdone. Now, you might make or buy a fruitcake that simply has mango and coconut, with a touch of crunch from crushed nuts. It’s still fruitcake. It’s just lost the busy-ness of the traditional fruitcake.
Another way that fruitcake has gotten a makeover is that it’s not served as a brick or a heavy round solid. Now, we’re seeing bakers give the royal wedding cake a lighter touch by making one layer of a three-layer cake a textured fruitcake (usually the middle layer) and then sandwiching that with traditional layers, such as lemon cake. If you love the flavors of dark fruitcake, your ‘sandwiching’ layers might be chocolate.
You can even ditch the cake presentation altogether, and serve frosted fruitcake bars, fruitcake cookies, or fruitcake pops [take fruitcake, crumble it into a bowl, mix it with frosting, use your hands to form that mixture into balls, insert a stick in each, and dip each in chocolate for a trendy treat.] Or, cut those fruitcake bars into small squares and dip them in fondue.
Tell us…how would you give the royal wedding fruitcake a modern twist? Which flavors would you love? How would you serve it?
Sharon | April 26th, 2011 | See all posts by Sharon
