"Devil's Fruitcake" (Re-Post)

To the hit of last year's holiday party, I'm re-posting instructions (plus a video made after a few glasses of wine) for Devil's Fruitcake or "watered fruitcake." Watering fruitcake is a trick I'd learned inspired by the book, Fruitcake: Heirloom Recipes and Memories of Truman Capote and Cousin Sook, received on my birthday last year. I forgot to demonstrate in the video, however, "moving the cake around."

Devil's Fruitcake (watered fruitcake)

Ingredients:

1 store-bought fruitcake
Brandy (unflavored)

Directions:

• Remove the fruitcake from its outer packaging, leaving its baking liner in place.
• With a long, thin piercing tool (such as a skewer) poke several long, diagonal holes throughout the fruitcake in intersecting directions.
• Place the fruitcake in a covered, glass casserole dish (or other suitable container) and carefully pour 1-2 tablespoons of brandy over the entire top of the cake.
• 'Move the fruitcake around' to evenly distribute the brandy throughout the cake.
• Place the covered casserole in the refrigerator.
• Every other day, "water" the fruitcake with 1 tablespoon brandy, remembering to 'move the cake around.'
• For each slice eaten (always slice when cold to prevent breaking), dress the exposed side with 1 teaspoon brandy.
• Serve with whipped cream if desired.

Note: If you have a time limit for preparing your devil's fruitcake, you can water the cake daily, but no more than four days. When the cake begins to resemble a "moist cake" and loses its original firmness, it's ready--don't water it anymore.

Let me know if you make this "Devil's Fruitcake" and what you (or your friends) think of it!

After re-viewing the video, I noticed some slight missteps: each watering will always consist of (at least) a full tablespoon of brandy, not a teaspoon. Only at presentation will it be dressed with a maximum of one teaspoon. And actually, you can water the cake more than six days, just be sure stop when it starts to resemble a 'moist sponge cake'--otherwise you may end up with a cake that falls apart. At day four of this cake: "It gets markedly better with age."