Fruitcake: Heirloom Recipes and Memories of Truman Capote and Cousin Sook

Fruitcake is a jaunty little collection of heirloom fruitcake recipes selected by Marie Rudisill from a nineteenth-century family farm journal owned by Sook Faulk, a cousin of Rudisill and Truman Capote, who immortalized Sook in his novella, A Christmas Memory. Rudisill, made famous as
The Fruitcake Lady
on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show, aims to elevate the much-maligned reputation of what she calls
the queen of cakes
in this book, which features 23 enticing recipes, including Peacock Fruitcake, Chocolate Fruitcake, Civil War Fruitcake, Pore Man’s Fruitcake, and Farmer’s Fruitcake. These are interspersed with pithy facts about fruitcake, an excerpt from A Christmas Memory, bits of kitchen wisdom and baking tips, and charming family reminiscences, most of which feature Truman and Sook. With a new foreword by cookbook author Jean Anderson, this entertaining volume enriches our experience of southern cooking by raising up one of its least-trumpeted culinary traditions.