Turkey tetrazzini and fruitcake

Although I was originally going to write about turkey leftovers, instead of posting a recipe for turkey tetrazzini, I'm writing about fruitcake.

Here's a wonderful recipe from my friend Lisa Dobbs. This is her mother's recipe, which she believes is from the makers of None Such mincemeat. Ideally it's best to make fruitcakes several weeks before you plan to serve them or give them away as gifts.

Mom's Fruitcake

• 2 1/2 cups sifted flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 2/3 cups (28 oz.) jar mince meat
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 cups (1 lb) jar mixed, candied fruit
• 1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped 

1. Butter a spring form or 9" tube pan.
2. Sift flour and soda.
3. Combine eggs, mincemeat and condensed milk, fruit and nuts.
4. Fold in dry ingredients. Pour into pan.
5. Bake in 350 oven (or slower) for 2 hours or until center springs back when touched and top in golden. Cool. Turn out.
6. To keep: wrap in cheesecloth soaked with run, then wrap in aluminum foil, then store in a plastic bag. Keep in fridge.

Instead of making a full size fruitcake, you can make mini fruitcakes in little loaf time tins (approx 6" x 3"). Wrap them up and give them to your fruitcake and rum loving friends. 

Each Christmas Mimi baked 12 mini fruit cakes, wrapping each one in aluminum foil and tying ribbons around each little cake. She also baked 1 pound fruitcakes in loaf pans for the neighbors next door, as well as a 2 pound fruitcake to mail to my Aunt Wyn in Chicago. She might have made one for the "family" too (aka Mimi, the biggest fruitcake lover of all).

A recipe for Light Old Fashioned Fruitcake from Mimi's cookbook.

The Trappist Monks make a beautiful 2-pound Assumption Abbey Trappist 2# Rum Fruitcake. Not too long ago, I ordered fruitcakes from the Trappists and had them shipped to Mimi and a few friends for Christmas. Mimi called to thank me when her fruitcakes arrived, saying it was going to take her a while to eat all of them. By mistake, the monks had shipped her the entire order.