Some Rum with that Sweater?

A few years ago I was introduced to real fruit cake.  This is the sort that has not encountered  any sickly sweet, gummy candied fruit.  Instead, it has pounds of dried apricots and pineapple, dates and figs, sour cherries and cranberries.  Cups and cups of toasted pecans and walnuts.  Are you drooling yet?  I mix the concoction with other good things and bake very slowly.  Hours go by.

Then things get more interesting.  After I dig out some clean tea towels, I give each cake a healthy swig of rum or brandy.  This year I made mini cakes and tried all sorts of liqueurs on them. (My father-in-law has already claimed the role of official taste tester so don't beg).  Once each cake is pleasantly damp and wafting fumes of alcohol from my now sticky kitchen, it is wrapped in a towel.  I further ensure its integrity by sealing it up in a zip lock bag.  Now each will get to ripen for a month with periodic re-wettings with the rum or brandy . . . Or amaretto . . . Or . . .

In years past, the fruit cakes lived in a dark cupboard of the laundry room.  Oh, if life were so simple.  My washer is in my kitchen and the dryer is in the well house.  There are no cupboards out there, but I have a strong suspicion there are lots of mice.  The kitchen is much too warm.

To me, the solution was perfectly logical.  The only dark, cool place that was also cat/mouse/dog proof was the hall linen closet.  My sweater drawer had a little space, so those aromatic little cakes were tucked in with the cardigans and cowl necked sweaters as if they belonged.  I saw nothing wrong with this, though my family bluntly laughed at me.

It still seems a good idea, though I had no idea that THAT much smell would leak out of those sealed bags.  I opened the drawer for the first time today for a cardigan and it was a little stout.  I am sure I aired out by the time I got to school.  Let us hope that the look from the student at my desk today was at my crazy hair and not my rummy self.  My principal always gives me a hard time so after a funny look from her too, I just stayed in room.  It just seemed the least complicated.