The Nicest Things Come in the Mail

Like this beautiful package:

I knew what was in it when I saw who sent it. My friends Jason ( of the Words from the Mountains blog) and John decided to make my mother's fruitcake recipe and had called me from the grocery store as they were buying the ingredients. A cake was promised, and I forgot all about it until Jason sent a message that the cake was on the way.

We opened the pretty box (I am so saving that!) and inside found...

yet another package. What fun it was to unwrap this.

Finally, inside we found two beautiful cakes:

which we immediately had to sample.

Verdict: Delicious! And even though they used the same recipe, the cake was quite different from the ones my sisters and I make--and ours come out different each year anyway. This cake was darker (maybe dark molasses instead of sorghum?) and had no candied citron but instead was full of cherries, golden and dark raisins, lemon and orange peel, and nuts. I liked it very much and am thinking about not using as much citron myself next year.

Thank you, guys! Mom would be so happy to know her recipe is being used by others, with such excellent results.