This fruitcake recipe has been in my family for many years. My Mom, Dorothy, would make this fruitcake about 2 months before Christmas so there was ample time to age the cakes with lots of rum. For fruitcake lovers, this holiday cake is rich, full of fruit and nuts, and fabulous. The only change I’ve made to the original recipe is using unsalted butter in place of vegetable shortening in the cake batter. My beautiful Mother is gone now, however the year she passed, 2015, I made about 20 of these delicious fruitcakes to give to our family and friends at Christmas as a special tribute to my Mom and her love of making homemade treats for those she loved. It took a bit of time, and of course an abundance of fruitcake ingredients, but I thought of her and remembered being a young girl assisting my Mom as she made these holiday fruitcakes with every batch of cakes that went into my oven.