The Hearty Boys Save Fruitcake

Dan Smith and Steve McDonagh, best known as local culinary mavens the Hearty Boys, have done it again. Not content with everything else they have going on (the catering and restaurant business and the burgeoning media career, for instance), McDonagh and Smith have created a fruitcake recipe that they say will change our perception on how we view this holiday monstrosity.

Additionally, McDonagh reveals some of his family's fruitcake traditions in an accompanying article in today's Sun-Times. "Every January, my mom would bake the family fruitcake. She'd let us make a wish as we stirred a shilling into the cake batter and whoever got the shilling that next Christmas would get their wish." We aren't down with the cute unless it's attached to an endless pair of legs protruding out of a tasteful skirt, but that's damn cute, y'all. Reminds us of our family tradition of eating blackeyed peas and ham hocks on New Year's Day for good luck and fortune during the coming year.