�I Don�t Like Fruitcake� Fruitcake

2 cups butter (1 lb)
2 3/4 cups brown sugar
1 cup honey
10 eggs
4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. allspice
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup half and half
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 cup apricot nectar
2 pounds dried apricots, sliced
2 pounds dates, pitted and chopped
2 pounds seedless raisins or currants
1 1/2 pounds pecans, broken

1. Cream together the butter, brown sugar and honey. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Set aside.

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, allspice and cinnamon. Fold half of this mixture into the first batter. Set aside the remaining half.

3. Combine the half and half, lemon juice and apricot nectar. Stir this into the remaining half of the first batter. Mix well.

4. In a very large bowl, mix together the apricots, dates, raisins and pecans. Dredge this mixture in the remaining flour mixture. Add to the batter and stir to blend. Pour the batter into four greased and floured loaf pans, or eight small loaf pans. Bake at 250�F (120�C) for three hours or until done. Cool in the pans before removing.

>5. Sprinkle the cakes with one cup brandy and 1/4 cup orange liqueur. Wrap well in foil and refrigerate for at least three weeks before serving. Do not freeze.

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Well, you can guess what I was doing today. Four, absolutely perfect loaves are at this moment getting quietly drunk on all that brandy and orange liqueur, wrapped up well and stored safely away in the cold cellar. I have been using this particular recipe since I first found it in the Ann Arbor newspaper in 1983 (or thereabouts). We were poor graduate students back then (well, he was the graduate student, but we were both poor) and this is what we gave as Christmas presents to his family members. I started making it again when we moved here to give to our friends in town. I subdivide the loaves for gift giving, dosing each piece with another shot of brandy before wrapping it up in festive paper. Kay Kinsman, of blessed memory, said that it was like a true English fruit cake, with real dried fruit, not that horrid candied peel you find in all the commercial facsimiles.

It took me two hours plus just go get it all in the oven, and that�s with the help of electric beaters. In the olden days, I creamed the butter and mixed in all those eggs by hand, and it took an age, plus gave me muscles. I still cut up my fruit with a knife. There�s something nice about finding chunks of apricot in every bite.

I will go now and watch the solar eclipse in Antarctica on the Discovery channel. Everyone else is doing it, and I certainly don�t want to be different!