My favorite food during the holiday season is as colorful as Christmas and as enchanting as your neighbor’s fireworks display after the new year countdown. It isn’t the lechon nor the star of the noche buena, it’s Fruitcake.
The Eraserheads wrote a book and released an album titled Fruitcake, there’s even a girl group in the 90s named Fruitcake (remember “whoops kiri”), and I might write a poem about it soon, hahaha!
I’ve tasted a lot of fruitcakes form different bakeshops and it’s always a hit and miss. I don’t get to choose because I don’t buy them, I receive them as gifts(sort of). My siblings doesn’t like fruitcakes, so when they receive one as gifts(which they always do), it automatically goes to me. Up to now, I have not bought one myself just because I don’t know which one to buy, plus their quite heavy on the pocket so buying the wrong one can be frustrating.
Earlier today, I received a package from a PR-turned-friend, now a great friend because of the package(she’s getting closer to becoming a bff).Guess what she sent?
Oh yeah, a box full of fruitcakes! The fruitcakes were from Ju.D’s Pastries and Confectionery, they have been making fruitcakes for almost 39 years. I Immediately took them out of the box, and took some photos so that I can give them a taste.
The fabulous baker girl behind Ju. D’s Pastries and Confectionery is Ju. D Lao. Surprisingly, Ju D. didn’t have formal training in baking/cooking, she just have so much passion for cooking. When she was experimenting on her fruitcake, there was not much cookbooks, and google is still yet to be established. It took a few months before she perfected her fruitcake, and it took a few more months to create its variants. Here are their best sellers:
The Classic Fruitcake is Ju D. Lao’s original fruitcake baked with the finest ingredients. “We never changed any of our ingredients since 1975. We do not add or lessen any amount of ingredients and we always see to it that it is the best.” said Ju D.
Ju. D Blue is a Blue Mountain Coffee flavored fruitcake aged with Kahlua Coffee Liquor for a distinctive taste. “It was hardest for the JuD Blue which is coffee flavoured fruitcake. We have to source for Blue Mountain Coffee flavour and have to have the right liquor to age the fruitcake.“
Ju D. Gold, is an apricot and cranberry fruitcake baked with honey and orange for its excellent flavor.
Prune Fruitcake is an exotic mixture of prune and coffee makes this fruitcake a must-try in a class of its own.
Don’t ask me which one is best, because they all are. I’ll just enumerate what I love about it.
- The fruits are not just toppings, they’re inside too.
- It has the right amount of rhum
- Perfectly aged.
- Soft dense cake that does not crumble when bit
- It smells like Christmas.
I just love everything about it, even the packaging. The box of Mini Fruitcakes is sold for P850 which has 2 of each flavor in 1 box. If you want to get the 2lb, regular-sized loaf it’ll be P950-P1000 depending on which variant.
Fruitcakes can last for years if your knowledgeable about fruitcakes. One customer has one for 7 years already and he plans to keep for 18 more years. Ju. D’s sister had one for 20 years, and it would have been longer if not for Ondoy. The oldest fruitcake is in London, 125 years old. I wouldn’t dare eat that, I’ll just probably auction it. The longest I had one was 6 days.
Aside from fruitcakes Ju. D also makes other baked goodies.
- Apricot Cookies and Cranberry Cookies P300/box = 12 pieces
- Chewy Chewkies (fruitcake cookies) P300/box = 12 pieces
- Ju.D’s Assorted Cookie Petites P200 (one flavor per 180gram box)
- Dark Chocolate Gingerbread
- Food for the Gods
- Ichigo San (Mr. Strawberry)
- Almond Chocolate Chips
- New York Peppermint
- Classic Chocolate Chips
- Ju.D’s Premium Nougat P300/box (180 grams per box of mixed selection)
- Cranberry- Almond
- Espresso
- Hawaiian (ginger; mango; cranberries)
- Cookies & Cream
Although the fruitcake business is seasonal; I consistently crave for it. So anyone who wants to order one between January to November can do so , but it’ll take 3 weeks time to have them aged and the minimum order is 8 pieces.
To sum it all up – if you love fruitcakes, buy it from Ju.D’s Pastries and Confectionery, it’s the best.
For orders, call (02) 633-1188 or (02) 633-0260. It has to be picked up at Ju. D Product Philippines, 50 Greenmeadows Ave., Quezon City.
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