Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Boulud and Keller please!

Don't forget The Parkside in Corona. Always a great meal, good service and reasonably proced. Only gripe i can say is reservations a must and count on waiting a few minutes or more even with a reservation. the bar is good, thank goodness. the place is always bustling.

Of course Steve's is a pale shadow--it was sold many years ago, and Steve Herrell moved his operation to Northampton, MA, where he's been beloved for many years. Moving back in on Boston is only right.

Come to the burbs, children. We have Kimballs, and Bedford Farms, Sullivans and Dairy Joy! You can work your way from one to the next on a tour that will make your eyes and your belly bulge out. But I have to say, Christina's rice pudding ice cream is one of my all time favorites. Once I can find a place to park my car.

Regarding the cakes at the Collin St. Bakery, they make one that only has apricots and pecans. I guess it still qualifies as a fruitcake. Check it out.
http://www.collinstreet.com/pages/apricot_pecan_cake

There are all sorts of things called fruitcakes, and it's a little like saying you don't like cheese because you tasted one kind of cheese and didn't like it. As a former deeply picky eater, I can sympathize. I don't like the red and green candied cherries, I don't like the soggy nuts, and I don't like the fake rum flavorings. However, I make a dark, spicy cake that utilizes raisins, currants, dried apricots, mangoes (if I can find them) and pineapple, that goes by the name of fruitcake but tastes very different than the stuff one thinks of under that name.

There are also some Irish fruitcakes that are blonde, so to speak, and they're also marvelous. Don't condemn all fruitcakes.

I was a fruitcake hater until the day I was given one of these-

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1919,154167-236194,00.html

This is the quintessential fruitcake of the south, and is similar to the one popularized by The Colin Street Bakery in Texas. It ain't cheap to make, but if one does not skimp on quality ingredients, it is an fruitcake epiphany!

Make it yourself. Use real, (unsweetened) dried fruit, toasted nuts, citrus zest, and freshly ground spices. Use a light touch with the sugar. Do not frost or glaze with anything. Marinate with brandy. I follow Alton Brown's recipe, with a few small alterations/additions depending on how I feel, but try to avoid anything that would significantly alter the texture.

The result is dense, moist, and intensely flavored. Cut into small slices to serve; a little goes a long way.

My mom used to make fruit cake that was pretty ok but I changed up the recipe years ago and to be honest I love the stuff and everyone thats ever tried it does too. Very simple spice cake, with fresh fruit and nuts rather than preserved, I tried the dried fruit and even that was too sweet for me. So I guess mine isnt a "real" fruitcake but it is festive and more important to my mind ppl like it.

My husband and I fight over the first, second, ..., last slice of fruitcake. We'd eat it daily but at $15/loaf, it's not something we can afford to buy every day (not that we can find it). I love spice cake, I love fresh and dried fruits, so I love fruitcake! I usually spit out the nuts when it's in there, since I'm not a fan of nuts.

I send them to people i don't like ;) ... LOL only kidding.
I don't like fruit cake

I loathe fruitcake. I've tried it several times and to me the flavor pretty much varies from merely bad to really awful. I do, however, LOVE a well made friendship cake, which if you've never had it, is fruit that's marinated in sugar and brandy for about 3 weeks (per my great aunt's recipe) and then mixed with a basic white cake that has a bit of the liquid from the marinade and some walnuts mixed in and baked in a bundt cake pan.

I agree with HomeSickTexan....Collin Street Bakery is the bomb, best ever, finest-kind.....Thanks to Collin Street Bakery for one fine product.