Everyone Loved Grandmother's Fruitcakes

Unlike so many others I love good fruitcake. My grandmother made delicious to-die-for fruitcakes every year. They were dark and rich and gooey and had a nice taste of rum. She made them early, probably in Sept or Oct, and soaked them in a dishtowel soaked in rum until Christmas. By the time the flavors had all melded together into a perfect firm, moist sweet cake.

One year when it came time to pull one of her fruitcakes out to serve and believe me we were all licking our lips in anticipation, she pulled back the Saran wrap and then the rum soaked dish towel. Oh, no!! There were two very fat cockroaches right there on top. For a moment they looked like part of the cake and then reality set in. Oh, no. Yuck.

Grandma wanted to cut off that part of the cake and serve it. No way, no one wanted any of it. Sure ruined that year's fruitcake, but there were many more roach-less fruit cakes until the year she died.