Let’s get real here, fruitcake is one of those desserts that people either just love or the sight of it makes their stomach turn. Some call them an acquired taste, others call them junk.

I used to fall into the latter category. Growing up in a small town, it was common practice for neighbours to exchange baked goods as the holidays approached. I have many memories of my mom and I knocking on doors handing our her legendary sugar cookies — a recipe she still hasn’t given me!

As Christmas neared, I would come home from school almost daily to the site of foiled wrapped packages taking up more and more space on the kitchen counter. For whatever reason, my hometown was fruitcake crazy — maybe it was all the inbreeding?

As a child, I loathed this seasonal sweet. I thought it was the most disgusting thing in the world. How did people consider this a treat? Only my mom and sister were fans of it. The rest of us turned up our nose and refused to partake.

A friend of mine has said that fruitcake is the gift you give to people you don’t like — I guess the town hated my family. By the time Christmas was over, we had so many of cakes that my dad joked we could build an extension to the house with them.

It was only an adult my opinions on the much-maligned holiday dessert began to change. I have flung off my anti-fruitcake stance and embraced it as a vital holiday tradition.

I have a theory that there are two reasons why most people hate it. The first is that they’ve only had store-bought ones. Store-bought fruitcake is not real fruitcake. It’s simply a mix of a couple of raisins and nuts drowned in a vat of corn syrup loosely held together by some batter.

The second reason for the hate is the notorious mix of candied peel. Sorry, but candied peel is disgusting and should be outlawed with due hast. I know some people love it and say it is the “taste of Christmas,” but I can’t stomach the stuff. For me, it overpowers the rest of the cake making it taste like bitter fruit peel with some rum. Not my thing at all.

This is the recipe I have used for years, and even members of my family who previously loathed fruitcake enjoy it.

You should bake the cake at least six weeks before Christmas to let it age a bit, but in all honesty, the further ahead you make it, the better it gets. Thanks to the brandy and rum, this it has a very long shelf life.

So-called ‘fruitcake experts,’ advise you make it a year in advance. While I’ve never done this, I have tried year old fruitcake and it melted in my mouth as it was so boozy and creamy.

So, if you want to take the leap and join the fruitcake club, why not give this recipe a try. Also, the great thing is you can use any dried fruit your heart desires. If you don’t like an ingredient I’ve selected, substitute it. I know people who put dried pineapple, candied ginger and even dried apples in theirs and it’s fabulous — just don’t put in candied peel, or I will find you!