When I was growing up in Nebraska, my Irish grandmother made fruitcake for the family. It was gooey and sticky, and steeped in liquor, the only liquor little kids were allowed to have. Even the egg nog was non-alcoholic for the kids. But the fruitcake was oozing with liquor. Unfortunately, I never got the family recipe for the fruitcake from her, but I distinctly remember what it tasted like.

When I got married, I discovered my husband also likes the most maligned of holiday cakes, and we searched to find our own recipe for it. Now forty years later, my husband and I still make our Christmas fruitcake on Thanksgiving weekend to give to our family and friends.

We originally bought a copy of From Julia Child’s Kitchen for the onion soup recipe, another culinary delight we found we shared. But rummaging around in the book, we […]