'Tis the Season...

I suppose, for me, the holidays start with Halloween. Halloween is my quintessential holiday. It evokes, well... that's another post.

Anyway, Halloween, or the end of October, signals the start of the slippery slope toward Thanksgiving, my birthday, Christmas and the New Year. For most of us, it also is the opening gate for the holiday festivities to begin.

And thusly begins the fruitcake season.

Fruitcake, you say. That is nothing more than a brick... a door stop or a waste of culinary prowess.

A dear reader, you are so misconceived!

I have my own recipe for tropical fruitcake, and if you are going to be a part of my blogging, then you shall watch this delectable, gastronomical delight come to fruition!

For me, and my original recipe, it is tradition to start with the most time consuming and natural of ingredients: I candy my own lemon, lime and grapefruit peel and segments. In addition, this year I decided to add to the mix starfruit.

I start by removing the peel from the lemons and limes (after they have been washed, of course.)

Then the fruit segments are removed from the inside.

Here sliced starfruit is simmering in a simple syrup.

The peels are added to a simple syrup and simmered until they become transparent.

As you can see, the peels have shrunk slightly as the natural liquid in the peel is exhanged for the simple syrup and the peels have begun to candy.

The lemon and lime segments in the simple syrup.

The starfruit, lemon and lime peel on a rack for drying.

Since I only have a few slices of the starfruit I am going to cover them with coarse sugar and use them as decoration on plates or in cocktails. The rest, will dry for several days and then be chopped up with the remaining fruits for the cake.

Bon Appetite!