The Magic Fruit Cake
I know, I know. A recipe on Kitchen Retro! How very extraordinary.
But this recipe really IS extraordinary. As a matter of fact - it is magic. The Magic Fruit Cake! Sounds like the opera Mozart would have written - if only he had been around in the 1950s, privy to the cultural wonders of Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk.
Another special thing about this recipe is that it's a Canadian Magic Fruit Cake - thanks to the beneficence of Elsie the Cow and her friends at the Borden Hostess House. That Hostess House must have been quite a fun place. What with Elsie - who looks like she's been dipping into some sort of Magic Fruit herself - not to mention all those Magical recipes. There are 70 of them in the booklet, mostly involving confectionary.
After a few pages, you really do start to feel a bit overwhelmed. Although that could be dessert overload.
This recipe was on a separate piece of paper inside the booklet, inserted for the benefit of the Canadian market. For alas, Borden's Condensed None Such Mince Meat was not to be had outside of the US. Considering the name, I guess they were lucky to find it there. How much more can you condense regular mincemeat, anyway? That stuff has its own gravitational pull.
I do want to know is what, precisely, is Magic about this cake - and about the Magic Fruit Surprise Cake on Page 22 that they mention at the top. Just how surprising is it? Does the fruit do magic tricks? Does the cake talk you through an awkward dinner?
Maybe it washes the dishes afterwards. Say, I ought to try that cake out. I could use a break!
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