Discussion:1941 Fruit Cake Sells for $525 at Auction
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Discussion Forum Index --> General Chat --> 1941 Fruit Cake Sells for $525 at Auction
| 24 December 2011 | |
| I wanted to make this final post before I go on my Christmas break. Nineteen and forty one Vintage fruitcake sells for over 500.00 dollars.
This is the mother of all fruit cakes and the Holy Grail of Gateaux. It's not just wine that has good vintages. 1941 was known as a superb year for fruit cakes and I'm sure this one is well fermented at this point (it could probably stand a dip in some brandy or Mogen David concord Kosher wine though). http://www.accessatlanta.com/celebrities-tv/1941-fruitcake-in-ohio-1271677.html?cxntlid=thbz_hm | |
| 24 December 2011 | |
| From the article - "The cake was made in 1941 by The Kroger Co. It was returned unopened to a Kroger store in 1971. The manager took it home and kept it until recently." So, the manager stole it? Not prosecuted? Not reported on 1040? Oh, the years of guilt he must have borne. | |
| 24 December 2011 | |
| The fellow who brought it back in '71 had some nerve. He changes his mind after 30 years and decides he doesn't want the fruit cake and he brings it back to the store (I have no doubt he demanded a refund in inflation-adjusted dollars).
But Podolin, keep in mind there is a story like this behind every great find in the collectibles world. You've probably heard some of the stories about the Hope diamond. In fact I think the Hope diamond can trace its provenance back to at least Marie Antoinette. After it was taken from the French Royal House during the revolution I think it was kept in some building in Paris along with some other royal loot. Then it was stolen again and made its way to a British jeweler I believe. | |
| 25 December 2011 | |
| When I was growing up we had a live-in housekeeper (my mother worked -- an unusual situation in those days) who was a terrific cook. She made fruitcakes every year, right after Thanksgiving, wrapped them in clean dishtowels, put them in a drawer in the dining room buffet, and drizzled them with brandy every day until Christmas. By that time you could almost get a buzz just from the aroma! Alas, there never was any left over. I'd give more than $525 for one of those fruitcakes today. | |
| 25 December 2011 | |
| I had a great mystery answered in my family this year. My mother wrapped her fruit cake in cheese cloth and she poured Mogen David wine on it (concord grape wine I believe). It actually gave it a pretty darn good taste. So after all these years I asked her just recently (yes she is still alive but getting up there)...I finally asked her why she used Mogen David. We aren't Jewish. Her comment was that it was the only wine she ever heard of at the time and so she bought it and used it. By the way she showed me the old recipe she used which was taken off a Borden Sweetened Condensed Milk Can...it clearly calls for Brandy not Mogen David. lol. In such ways traditions spring up. | |
| 25 December 2011 | |
| It is good to know there are still some fruit cake lovers left in the world ... I thought that I was alone! My mother also made fruit cakes and when she could no longer bake them, she would send us a 3-lb fruit cake from Harry & David's. One year when we were living in the snowbelt of Ohio, the fruit cake was not delivered .... or so we thought. (Harry & David's sent another.) We had a January thaw and found the cake packaging in the snow. Our black lab had eaten the whole cake. We thought back to the week before Christmas and how stinking the dog had been ... the kids were always blaming each other. That 3 lbs of Confectionery Fruitcake really made the dog aromatic. After 20+ years, my family still talks about that fruit cake at Christmas. | |
Spell Czech (talk|edits) said: | 25 December 2011 |
| There must be a million fruit cake stories ... In The Naked City.
An ex's ex-inlaws' step Mom [don't ask, it's very complicated, and stretches over several decades and at least three families] actually used a fruit cake as a door-stop. Her explanation was that being a door-stop was a fruit cake's "best and highest" use. It's been more than twenty years; I wonder if... | |
Death&Taxes (talk|edits) said: | 25 December 2011 |
| Katie: Wife, following a grandmother's recipe, uses the cheesecake, stores them in an unused, unheated bathroom upstairs under cheesecloth (or very thin dishtowel) and uses blackberry brandy, supplementing this dosage ever so often. She tells her family of Granny's Maine recipe, and they all run.....so we have it to ourselves, though last year my sister-in-law tasted it and loved it).
Here is an off-topic Christmas Story making the rounds of ex-pat, anti-government circles: | |
