Another Fruitcake

After contemplating the much maligned holiday treat (I use the term treat loosely),  I decided to take a crack at baking a fruitcake.  Not to be confused with Fruitcake, of course...  I certainly wouldn't want an elf in my oven!

My dad has a great fondness for fruitcake.  I think my grandma used to make it.  Anyway, since she is no longer available for holiday baking, and my mom has politely refused to bake one, I decided to present my dad with a fruitcake of my own.

The first hurdle presented itself rather quickly.  Have you ever tried to find a fruitcake recipe?  I searched and searched...  I browsed the internet, my high altitude baking bible, my cookbooks...  I found date nut bread, banana bread, coconut bread, cranberry orange bread...  but no fruitcake (which, you must know, is actually a bread...  you knew that, right?)  Anyway, I finally found a suitable recipe but it made four large loaves and had some measurements which would be hard to reduce.  I wasn't sure I wanted to sacrifice 10 eggs on a fruitcake experiment, so I kept searching.

After locating a reasonably sized recipe, I had another decision to make...  Fruit or gumdrops?  I bought both but decided to go with fruit.  Too bad that choice was made after I arrived home with a five pound bag of spiced gumdrops. *sigh*

The preparation went smoothly and I was rather pleased with myself, until my family realized what I was attempting.  My sister cautioned me,

Say NO to fruitcake!

And my daughter asked if grandpa was going to eat the whole thing himself.  She assures me she won't be sampling any...

The experiment is nearly over.  The house smells delicious.  My beautiful fruitcake, which I altered to adjust for altitude, rose to become a plump and rounded cake (bread, whatever)...  But alas, as luck would have it, the temptingly full loaf fell.  Let's just hope it's edible, or at least that my dad thinks it's edible...