Liquid Fruitcake Slideshow
Hudson Buck
Take the molasses that you would have put in your fruitcake batter, and use it instead in this recipe for Vanderbilt's Hudson Buck. The New York restaurant sources the apple cider molasses used in this cocktail from a farmer upstate.
The Situation
Raisins are one of the staple ingredients of fruitcake. Enjoy them even more in this cocktail from New York's Summit Bar, which cleverly features the golden variety as a garnish.
Glögg
You can also pay homage to fruitcake's raisins with the classic Scandinavian mulled wine, Glögg. In addition to raisins, this recipe, from Aquavit's Executive Chef Marcus Jernmark, also infuses other fruitcake flavors like citrus peel, cinnamon, brown sugar, and nutmeg.
Piccola Noce
Instead of walnuts, think walnut liqueur. Lavo's Piccola Noce (literally, "little walnut") captures the flavors of the holiday with this nutty spirit.
Blood Orange, Ginger Beer, & Tequila Cocktail
To represnt the candied citrus peel often found in fruitcakes, why not mix a blood orange cocktail, like this one, from Food Porn Daily?
Lola in Love
In a fruitcake, dried cranberries are nice. In a cocktail, fresh and puréed cranberries are even better. Want proof? Try Ofrenda's Lola in Love cocktail.
The Gilligan
We'll take pineapple juice in fruity beach cocktail, like The Gilligan, over fruitcake's candied pineapple any day.
Sam's Serious Eggnog
Try nutmeg in another Christmas classic: Eggnog. This recipe, from Waterfront Ale House in New York, gets two teaspoons freshly grated on top. And, like fruitcake, it also calls for dark rum and cinammon.
Farmer's Daughter
Spices, like cinnamon, are key to fruitcake. It's also an essential ingredient in this hot cocktail from Brooklyn's Five Leaves, which uses a whole cinnamon stick in it.
Hot Buttered Rum
Butter, everyone's favorite ingredient and a baking must-have, isn't enough to inspire everyone's interest in fruitcake. But it does find a happy home in Hot Buttered Rum, like this one from Café Nell in Portland.
Mexican Hot Chocolate
Brown sugar makes everything better, except maybe fruitcake. It's much more enjoyable in this recipe for Mexican Hot Chocolate from cookbook author Judith Choate.
Martha Washington Rum Punch
Fruitcake actually has dark rum in it, and still people dislike it. We say, leave the fruitcake, take the rum...and pour it into a punchbowl to make Martha Washington's Rum Punch.