1917 to 1945 Cake #16

Mrs Harvey's White Fruitcake

During WWII many women would send the troops letters and food. One woman, who won a recipe contest in Tampa for her fruitcake, supposedly sent many cakes to service men in 13 different countries throughout the war. It was a very practical cake to send overseas because if packaged right it can stay edible for up to two months. Her name was Lucille Plowden Harvey and the Tampa Tribune called her cake the "fruitcake people like to eat." Every year, after Thanksgiving, the newspaper reprints her recipe.

My Experience:

This cake has one pound of candied cherries and one pound of candied pineapple. The recipe also calls for a large amount of pecans, a lot of vanilla and lemon extract, and enough bourbon to brush over the whole thing. With all of these special ingredients, this cake is pretty expensive to make, which makes it that much more impressive that Mrs Harvey sent so many to the troops during the war.

The process of making this cake was simple; pretty much everything gets mixed together in one bowl and then gets poured into the pan, and lastly placed into the oven. The cake did not look appetizing and I was hesitant to try it. I tasted it and it was better than it looked, but still was not my cup of tea. It did, however, turn out to be one of my husband's favorites.

Neighbor's comments: I only got one response, which is never a good sign haha.

"I couldn't bring myself to eat any, it looked like too much going on for me."

*In the pictures you will notice that there is frosting on the cake, this is not part of the recipe. I had leftover from another project and used the extra to make this cake a bit more appetizing:)