Great Grandma Cece’s Famous Fruitcake

This year just won't be the same for Macy without her great grandma Cece’s fruitcake to celebrate the holidays. Cece passed when she was a baby but her Mamaw kept up the tradition of making Cece’s fruitcake but Mamaw passed earlier this year unexpectedly and had not passed the recipe down to Macy’s mama yet. Macy had tried fruitcake from other people over the years but none could stand up to great grandma Cece’s. Macy had spent the last 2 months researching every fruitcake recipe that she could find and had made over 100 fruitcakes but not one had even come close to what she remembered. Cece lived with Mamaw before she passed and no one had cleaned Mamaw's house yet so today is the day that she was going to search Mamaw’s house in the hopes of finding the recipe, if it even exists because she had never once seen Mamaw use one. 

As she put the key in the lock, memories came flooding back of the many times as a little girl when she would come bursting through the door to smell what special treat Mamaw was baking. Chocolate chip cookies, fudge, or her fruitcake depending on what time of year it was. Opening the door and stepping inside she noticed a layer of dust over everything and sighed knowing the first thing she needed to do was dust the house because Mamaw would never allow anyone in her house with it looking like this. 

Macy went to the closet to get the duster to get started. When she opened the door she noticed that some boxes were tipped over on the top shelf. Pulling them down she noticed there were a bunch of old letters in one of the boxes. Taking the box to the living room Macy started going through the letters and noticed that they were letters between Great Grandma Cece and Great Grandpa Terry. Macy started reading the letters and couldn’t believe what she was seeing, the letters were from Terry to Cece when he was deployed in World War 2. After 2 hours of reading letters Macy came across a letter where Terry was asking Cece if the first thing she would fix for him when he got home was her delicious fruitcake. The letter was from 1941 which means that Cece was only 16 years old at the time. Macy kept reading and found another letter were Terry was letting Cece know that he was going to be home on December 15, 1941 so that Cece would have time to make her fruitcake so it would be ready for when he got home. 

Macy decided to start dusting in the kitchen and searching along the way. As she was dusting the counters she noticed a big jar sitting there and it had writing on it. As she pulled it out she noticed that the piece of paper taped to the jar was old and yellowed with age. In Cece’s small, elegant handwriting was a list of fruits: 

golden raisins, dark raisins, figs, prunes, cherries, apricots, candied ginger and peaches. 

Macy quickly remembered when she was little helping Mamaw pile lots of dried fruit in this jar and then Mamaw filling it with some kind of liquid. Maybe she had seen Mamaw working on the fruitcake before and she had just forgotten. Macy knew it couldn't be alcohol that Mamaw used because she had heard her mama say before that Cece and Terry never drank any of that stuff so there was no way that Cece or Mamaw would have used it to bake. As she kept cleaning up the kitchen she was finding more things that brought back wonderful memories of Mamaw. When Macy got to the fridge she had to get the step ladder to reach the top. Once she could see everything on the fridge she noticed a little metal box sitting in the very back almost out of reach. She pulled the box down and looked over the intricate pattern of flowers on the outside and smiled remembering Mamaw telling her when she was a little girl that one day this would be hers. Macy climbed down and went to the table to look through the box, when she opened it she saw that it was stuffed full of index type cards. Pulling out the first card Macy started reading it only to come to the realization that it was a recipe card for cookies. Getting excited that if these were all recipes maybe the recipe for the fruitcake was in here somewhere. She looked up and saw that it was dark out and she had already spent the whole day cleaning and finding pieces of her past she had forgotten about. Macy took the little metal recipe box and grabbed her jacket so that she could head home for the night. 

That night Macy sat down at her computer and brought up her email to send her Mama a message:

Mama, 

   I was at Mamaw's house today and was trying to see if I could find a copy of Cece’s fruitcake recipe. Of course I didn't find it but I did find a Jar labeled with fruit names and I remembered helping Mamaw put fruits in it when I was little. I was wondering if you maybe remember what she would soak the fruits in because I know it wasn’t alcohol and I think that is the part I am missing to be able to recreate it. I hope you are enjoying your trip and hope to hear from you soon!

    Macy

After Macy emailed her Mama she decided that it was time for bed and a good nights rest so that she could start fresh in the morning. 

The next morning Macy got up and fixed breakfast. After breakfast Macy checked her email and didn't see anything from her mom so she decided to start looking through the recipe box. A couple of hours looking through the box had produced nothing on the fruitcake but lots of recipes that Macy had fond memories of. She was thinking it was time for a break when her phone went off with a text from her best friend Carrie asking if she wanted to get a late lunch with her. Macy sent her text that she needed a break and would love to get lunch, she grabbed her jacket and headed out hoping that a break would help her clear her mind. When she got to the restaurant and found Carrie they sat down and ordered lunch and decided to get something to drink. The waiter suggested their holiday special drink of a Cranberry Orange cocktail so Carrie got one and Macy ordered hers without any alcohol. As soon as Macy tasted her drink she had a eureka moment. This was it the flavor that Macy has always remembered Cece's fruitcake having, this drink tasted just like the fruit. She got excited and told Carrie that she had to go. Macy rushed to the store to pick up her supplies. She got all of her fruit and picked up cranberry juice, orange juice, and more eggs. Once she got home she grabbed her jars and put all her fruits in and decided to do half each of the juices. 

Since she had to let the fruit soak for at least a day so she wanted to email her mama and let her know that she may have figured it out. Once she emailed her Mama she made sure that she had everything else she needed to make the cake. Macy made a simple syrup to brush on the cake after it was done to keep it moist and then put it in the fridge for tomorrow. 

Today was the day, Macy was going to make another fruitcake and she was positive that this time it was going to be perfect. She preheated the oven, mixed her batter, added the fruit, and then placed it in the oven. Once the cake was done she brushed it with the simple syrup and then put it in the cake box and in the fridge. Macy checked her email and saw her Mama had emailed her that she was home and would come by to see her. She decided that she was going to wait until her Mama got there to try the cake. When she arrived Macy was so excited she practically dragged her to the kitchen to try the cake. The first bite was heavenly and brought back so many memories, it tasted just like she remembered. She had done it finally after months and many tries, She had managed to recreate Cece’s Fruitcake and even take a trip down memory lane. Macy knew that even though Cece and Mamaw were no longer with them, they would always live on in their hearts and now in the fruitcake.