Nutty as a...

Kirkland fruitcake

How can anyone not like spiced cake with fruits?

There are two types of fruitcake that I enjoy. No, the two types are NOT a doorstop and one not received!

The first type is the sweet variety, full of fruits and nuts. Kirkland, Costco's house brand, makes a perfect fruitcake of this type -- moist, with an abundance of luscious candied cherries and pineapple, walnut halves, and whole pecans. It's almost a misnomer to call it a cake with the generous portion of fruits and nuts. The cake is but a vehicle for all the fruits and nuts. This is best enjoyed in moderation because it is rather cloying.

The second type, my favorite, is soaked in alcohol and isn't as cloying. The fruitcake made by Gethsemani Farms, an abbey in Kentucky, is the first and only whiskey fruitcake I have tried so it is the bar by which all alcohol fruitcakes will be measured for me, if/when I encounter another one. The cake isn't as laden with fruits and nuts as Kirkland's. The Trappist monks at the abbey bake these moist fruitcakes with walnuts, pecans, cherries, orange and lemon rind, and wine, and finish the cakes with aged bourbon.

The price tag between the two is significant, with Kirkland's ringing up at $12.99 for 3-1/2 lbs ($3.71/lb) and Gethsemani Farms's 2-1/2 lb fruitcake at $34.25 ($13.70/lb).

I'll add a cross-sectional photograph of the Gethsemani Farms's fruitcake when one is available. I sent them as gifts for several years, skipping this year; however, it has been a few years since I had one myself. Perhaps we will get one this year, just for ourselves, to complete this post. Yeah.

- Cassaendra