Christmas Cake

​We receive an invitation to morning tea in the new year, ostensibly to help clear some left-overs, in particular the Christmas cake.  Seven of us sit around a table set with Shelley teacups, plates and a glass of domestic bubbles. Bliss.
Laura has been making this recipe for years. It was possibly the best I’ve ever had – texture, colour, flavour. Following modern trends, it was not covered in marzipan or snow-like icing, which I miss.

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I have a special bond with celebratory fruit cakes. On coming to England to marry my father, Maman took herself off to cookery classes.  She was a top cook, from a family of good cooks, but she felt her repertoire lacked three dishes – Yorkshire pudding, Christmas cake and Christmas pudding. (I think there were some soused herrings in there somewhere, too.)
She rightly thought the French Bûche de Noël lacked gravitas and substance.  She was so right.
 
How can anyone not like Christmas cake? (I mean of course a well-made one, not pale and doughy.) It has tradition, staying power, colour and wholesome dried fruit.  And I’ll say it, anyone who does not like marzipan loses my respect.
 
When doing weddings at the restaurant I couldn’t understand why the fruitcake was passed over for the dreaded chocolate mud cake. (Urrrgh!)
 
As Pauline Hansen would say, “Please explain”.  Please tell me why the fruit cake has lost favour.

Rescue the fruit cake?   Comment below.
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