Grandma Clara bakes fabulous fruitcakes. Grandpa Mo always gets in the way in the kitchen by stealing small bits of the scrumptious cake. Sister Sherry who runs the senior center in town stops by to tell them about a Fruitcake Bake-Off happening at the center. The prize is Mo’s Honeymoon Christmas gift. A trip to Hawaii for Clara and Mo.
“Get out will you.” Grandma Clara slapped Grandpa Mo’s hand away once again while he snuck another sample of her fruitcake, or so he claimed it to be just a sample. Clara made the best fruitcake in town, at least Mo thought so.
“I can’t help it, it’s so good.”
“Go watch a football game or something.”
“They’re not on yet.”
“Well then go take a nap.” Clara shooed him from the kitchen. Every year he always got in her way while she tried to make fruit cake for gifts to give out to the family. She would begin making them during the month of August and continue to make a cake each weekend until Christmas day. The earlier cakes would be soaked with brandy. Those were the cakes she planned on giving to her older family members like her sister who traveled out to see her from New Mexico with her husband. She would be there by tomorrow, Christmas Day.
A car pulled into the driveway. Clara could see whom the occupant was from her kitchen window that looked out toward the main road, past the driveway. It was Sister Sherry from the Cathedral of Saint Anne. She ran the senior center in town.
Clara belonged to the senior center for the past few years. Her and her husband had taken many a bus trip that had been scheduled by the group. It made taking a vacation affordable for them since her husband had retired two years ago.
“Mo, can you get the door? It’s Sister Sherry.” Clara called out from the kitchen while she ran her electric mixer. Bits of batter leaped from the bowl while she tried to get the beaters as close to the side of the bowl as they would allow. By the time she shut off the mixer, Mo was leading Sister Sherry into the kitchen where he snagged once again another crumb of the fruit cake that was cooling on the rack.
Clara slapped his hand.
“Mo, I told you to get. Now go.”
Her husband ignored her protests and took another small piece of the fruitcake and held it out to the nun to take. “You really need to try this.”
“Oh, I couldn’t”
“You must. Anyways I can’t put it back.” Mo laughed.
Clara stood with her hands on her hips. There was no way she was going to get these cakes finished with her husband in her kitchen. Maybe she should give up and do what everyone else was doing on the day before Christmas by shopping in the crowded stores.
Sister Sherry took her time tasting the small morsel. “That cake is fabulous.” She licked her lips. “You certainly must enter that recipe in our annual fruitcake competition at the center. The contest ends today. You don’t even need to bake the cake, we can do it for you at the center. You just need to supply the recipe.”
Clara smiled. “I can’t part with my recipe. Even my daughter who is coming over today doesn’t know it. I might leave it to her when I die, but not before then.”
Mo began wrapping up the cake he had been taking samples from. The edge was beginning to show loss from his continuous samples. It was going to be his cake anyways. He had already laid claim to it even though he honestly shouldn’t be eating it. Being diabetic and all. “Here take my cake and enter it.”
“But Mo…” Clara protested.
“Now Clara, if you only knew more about the contest. The first prize is a trip to Hawaii New Year’s day. I know how you have always wanted to go to Hawaii, and we have never been able to afford the trip. It could be our second honeymoon.”
