I remember when I was a little girl, my aunt and her family used to visit us during the holidays. She would bring in this huge plate holding one of her fruitcakes. It was covered with a dishtowel which I never did figure out what that was all about. You could smell the thing from a block away! It was soaked in this special ingredient which stained the towel a funny dark color and it never seemed to dry as long as there was cake under it. I was crazy about it--not those nasty green chewy dried fruits in it, but the rest of it with walnuts, cherries and other things I loved. It wasn't until I was in my teens I either was told or figured out what that special ingredient was. She stopped making them and boy did I miss them. I had others sometimes but I never enjoyed any as much as hers. I wonder why?