Would you eat this fruitcake edition

[MarieCurie]

It's time for another round of that forum favorite game should I eat this or toss it! Appropriately for the Christmas season, today's episode stars a fruitcake.

Some background, on Saturday afternoon DD4 and I made a nice yummy fruitcake. It's a tradition. It's my Grandma's recipe and I make it every year. Sunday morning I poured spiced rum over it. I usually put in the fridge for about a week and then cut into pieces to send off to various family members.

Flash forward to Sunday evening, DD4 and DS6 both start throwing up. A few hours later I started throwing up too. It's now apparent we have a stomach bug.🤮 Now I'm worried we contaminated the fruitcake with whatever germs we have when making it. Do you think the alcohol would kill off any germs? I hate to chuck the fruitcake because I don't think I'll have time to bake another one before Christmas. The ingredients are expensive and it takes 4 hrs to bake in the oven so it's hard to find the time to do it.

My Dad loves the fruitcake and I hate to not have it, but I don't want to give my family stomach flu for Christmas.

What says the hive?

[MaBelle]

I say you couldn't get me to eat any fruitcake regardless of what germs may or may not be on/in it.

[mumto2]

For me it would be so hard to throw out because I love it.  When I opened the thread I thought it was going to be an old fruitcake from last year and people that I know actually do that on purpose.....feed the cakes booze all summer.  The old ones are super good and I have eaten them.   I just googled......so assuming you have norovirus you were contagious 12 to 48 hours before symptoms started.  I am not sure about sharing the cake but I would certainly be willing to eat it within my immediate family.

[MarieCurie]

4 minutes ago, mumto2 said:

For me it would be so hard to throw out because I love it.  When I opened the thread I thought it was going to be an old fruitcake from last year and people that I know actually do that on purpose.....feed the cakes booze all summer.  The old ones are super good and I have eaten them.   I just googled......so assuming you have norovirus you were contagious 12 to 48 hours before symptoms started.  I am not sure about sharing the cake but I would certainly be willing to eat it within my immediate family.

The problem is it's a huge fruitcake and no one else in my immediate family will eat it. My husband is gluten intolerant, my son is too picky, and since it has alcohol in it I can't really give any to my kids anyway. I guess I can eat some of it myself, but most will probably be a loss.😭

[MarieCurie]

21 minutes ago, Arctic Mama said:

Fruitcake is my one true love.  Between sugar and booze I wouldn’t worry too much, unless you’re not sure about the state of hand cleanliness while making it.

Well my 4 year old was helping make it.😒

[Sherry in OH]

Baking kills most bacteria and viruses.  Assuming the 4-year old helped in the pre-baking stages rather than in the adding rum stage, the cake should be safe to eat.

[EKS]

I think that the question isn't whether or not the fruitcake will make people sick.  It is whether or not the recipients would appreciate getting it from a home that harbored a stomach ailment at the time of its inception.

I wouldn't want baked goods from such a home.

I would either give people the fruitcake with a warning (which would be weird at best) or start over.

 

[Melissa in Australia]

I would eat it myself. But I love fruit cake.

if I was really worried I would warm up the cake in the oven and serve it with custard. 
 

I have never heard of putting a fruit cake in the fridge. They store very well being wrapped in paper then foil on the shelf.

[MarieCurie]

3 hours ago, Sherry in OH said:

Baking kills most bacteria and viruses.  Assuming the 4-year old helped in the pre-baking stages rather than in the adding rum stage, the cake should be safe to eat.

I added the rum but now I'm sick too. I don't think I actually touched the cake when I added the rum though.

[sweet2ndchance]

My gut reaction is "no don't eat it"  because it is fruit cake. lol

But it is unlikely you contracted the stomach bug on baking day. It is much more likely that you either contracted it a day or two before hand or were possibly already contagious a day or two before. By my calendar that would have been Thanksgiving Day. So you probably either got it from family you visited on or the day after Thanksgiving. Or from food that was mishandled or undercooked on Thanksgiving.

How often do we eat food prepared in restaurants or delis or bakeries were we have no idea if the person preparing the food has been exposed to something contagious or possibly even came to work sick because they can't afford to miss work so they take some Dayquil and go to work anyways? Or maybe they have kids at home with something contagious but had to leave them with a sitter because they can't afford to miss work. Gross to think about but it happens every single day. The majority of the time we eat food prepared by others and never get sick. And we don't worry about it because we would be perceived as crazy if we questioned everyone who came into contact with our food if they had been around someone contagious within the last 48 hours before preparing our meal. Unless your dd sneezed or puked in the batter bowl or on the cake, I'm sure it is fine. As someone suggested, you could try warming it before serving or you could try freezing it for a week or so to kill anything that might be there. But if you don't want to go to that trouble, I'm sure just eating it as is will be fine too.

[alisoncooks]

Maybe you should test it by eating a bit. 😉