ETHNIC BAKERY - USA Style Fruitcake

Living in England (1982-88) gave me an opportunity to learn so much new information about baked items.  I remember their style of a wedding cake really opened my eyes -- it's a heavy, dark-colored fruitcake, also made for their Christmas holidays.  I even went to London for a day to take a class in how it was made -- I was very interested:  their Rich Fruitcake is made with almost a pound of each raisins, currants, sultanas, & cherries, about half that weight of dates and mixed peel, plus some glacé (candied) ginger, figs, pineapple, & chopped watermelon preserve!  Then comes a # of cake flour, 12 spices plus butter & sugar, & 8 eggs.  The Light Fruitcake only has a total of "only" 15 ingredients😯.

 When baked (some of their fruitcake recipes bake up to 3 or more hours), then it's brushed with a layer of pureed apricot jam, covered in a sheet of rolled-out marzipan, and then a sheet of rolled out fondant which I had never seen, nor used, before.  This was prior to fondant becoming more common in cake decorating here in the States.  And you could do so much more with it because of the molding texture, like clay, plus it was so much better to work with than our Royal Icing.  I knew because I had a 6-8-week course in cake decorating in the early 1970s.  As a stay-at-home mom, I always relied on learning "how to do" for so many things in life because we didn't have the money to pay someone else.  So with just a basic half-dozen cake decorating tips, I knew how to make decorated cakes for all occasions for only pennies & my time😊.

When we stopped at this Collin Street Bakery, their fruitcake is what all of us are familiar with . . . the USA version made with tons of nuts and sweet glacé fruits.  My 1st fruitcake was in the 1970s when I saw a photo in one of the Pillsbury 5x8" cookbooks.  To me, that one was the height of fruitcake luxury!!  Today it's just in my memories.

Quite an honor in 2021,  especially after having had $17 million embezzled by an employee!!  (See the link below.)  I've had one of their tins for years (the same design they've used forever), but never knew there was a store, nor  the history, until we were passing through the town one day.

https://collinstreet.com/pages/about-us   (an overview)

https://collinstreet.com/blogs/stories/collin-street-bakery-history   (the best history)

https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-stand-up-desk/behind-the-story-collin-street-bakery-embezzlement/   (Shocking, but survived.)