Fruitcake Without Candied Fruits?

I don't know why I suddenly decided I wanted to try making fruitcake with dried fruit instead of candied fruit. I think I can attribute it to my friend, Pat. She saw my previous blog post and texted me, "I love fruitcake, but only know how to make one with cream cheese." She also said she preferred fruitcake without too much of the candied fruit.

So I'm thinking... I should try making a batch for Pat to try. Besides, I knew Art's aunt loves fruitcake and would love to have another loaf.

Art was mystified. "Why do you need to make fruitcake?" he asked. "We still have several loaves in the freezer." 

"It's an experiment," I told him. And it was. He was not sold.

This past year, my friend, Naomi had to generously share her candied fruit with me so I could make fruitcake for the holidays because I couldn't find any in December. She told me that if I didn't purchased the candied fruit early in the season it would disappear from the shelves.

I looked at Jalna's fruitcake recipe (click on this link for recipe) again.  It did say you could also just use dried fruit. But would it be the same? Or similar? Would it be any good? Would it still be fruitcake? All the fruitcake recipes on line had fruit that you made by boiling dried fruit with brandy or rum and sugar or honey or whatever. 

When I told Art I was going to try making it with dried fruit anyway, I could swear I saw him roll his eyes up and bite his tongue. He told me that once I make up my mind on something I want to do, he's going to give up and just let me have my way. He is the fruitcake aficionado along with mom. I don't care for fruitcake. He felt it just wasn't going to work without candied fruit. "Aren't you even going to boil it in sugar or something?" he asked. I looked at him and he settled down to reading his newspaper.

I got out all the ingredients.

Art did help by chopping the walnuts for me. I took out all the dried fruit I had that I thought would work.

Raisins, cranberries, a Trader Joes berry mix, prunes, apricots...

Once they were made, we brought one over for Art's aunt, Pat and another friend who happens to love fruitcake.

There really are people who love fruitcake.

Art tried a slice of the cake when it cooled down and was very pleasantly surprised. He said it was really good.

Everyone else concurred. 

And mom?

She said it was the BEST I've made yet.

Art now says he thinks it's just as good as the regular fruitcake with candied fruit.

And Pat? She said, “ I just ate two pieces. I like it because it’s more cakey and not too fruity. Thank you so much!!!”

So you see.

Experimentation can be good.

OK... that's it for fruitcake for this year.