We’ve all heard the fruitcake jokes and many of us have believed them. For many of us, fruitcakes are on par with something as culinarily frightening as the episode where the kids on The Little Rascals came across some Limburger cheese.

In the popular culture, fruitcakes are often depicted as the scary, unwanted Christmas gift you get from the strange lady down the street who knits booties for her goldfish. But done right, a proper fruitcake is a pleasure to eat; a delicious traditional food that expresses the spirit of the holiday…a spirit which is all about preserving the flavor of the season with friends and family.

Below is a fruitcake recipe video which combines the best notes of the traditional fruitcake with some delicious modern twists.

Since this is a preserved fruit cake, ideally you’ll want to make it a couple of weeks before you plan to enjoy it or give it as a gift. This fruitcake recipe can be made with liquor, or for those who wish to avoid using liquor, you can use orange, cranberry, or apple juice instead of bourbon or rum.

As the video points out, despite fruitcake’s bad reputation, in 17th century England, singles used to put a slice of fruitcake under their pillows to help them dream of the person they would marry…a surprisingly romantic history for such an unfairly maligned cake!

Enjoy!

Curious where many of the commercial fruitcakes you see come from? Claxton, Georgia, home of the Old Fashion Claxton Fruit Cake Co. and Georgia fruitcake Co. holds that honor.

You can see other recent Weekend Video Spotlight Videos here.

You can also see HuggingtheCoast.com’s growing collection of food, cooking, and travel videos here.

Please join us tomorrow to see this week’s Hugging the Coast.Com Week in Review, an overview of last week’s special food features (as well as selected previews from the week to come).

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More than 50 million pumpkin pies are baked and consumed each year, according to the folks at Libby’s who annually turn 5,000 acres of field pumpkins into canned pumpkin puree and pie filling each year.

Pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread are probably the most popular dishes made with pumpkin in America and it can be easy to forget that there are many wonderful uses for pumpkin that make the most of its highly versatile sweet and savory qualities.

Below are 20 tasty pumpkin recipes that will help you do just that, whether you prefer to use fresh pumpkin or canned.

Enjoy!

• Our Homestyle Pumpkin Pancakes Recipe

• How to Make Pumpkin Puree Instead of Buying Canned Pumpkin Filling (and How to Roast Your Own Pumpkin Seeds) from Chew on That

• Fresh Pumpkin Pasta Recipe from Vegan Dad

• Soft Pumpkin Pretzel Recipe from Cake Maker to the Stars

• Pumpkin Pie Bites Recipe from Bakerella

• Pumpkin Bread Pudding With Warm Caramel Sauce Recipe from Diet, Dessert, and Dogs

• Pumpkin Pie Wontons Recipe from Vegetarian Times

• Pumpkin Bread with Dried Cranberries, Toasted Pecans and White Chocolate Chips Recipe from Closet Cooking

• Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe from Honey and Jam

• Pumpkin Soup Recipe from Cajun Chef Ryan

• Pumpkin Hummus Recipe from Appetite For China

• Pumpkin Fudge Recipe from Pumpkin Recipes

• Pumpkin Cream Cheese Truffles Recipe from Whole Foods

• Pumpkin Butter Recipe from Think Inside the Ice Box

• Pumpkin Dip from Blissfully Domestic

• Pumpkin Scones Recipe from Gourmet Traveller

• Fabulous Pumpkin Coffee Cake Recipe from Pumpkin and Spice

• Chiffon Pumpkin Pie Recipe from Simply Recipes

• Autumn Pumpkin Bread from Kitchen Parade

Please join us tomorrow to read our newest daily food and cooking feature on HuggingtheCoast.Com: 18 Wonderful Apple Dessert Recipe Ideas to Sweeten Your Life.

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(Photo Credit: Pumpkin Pi by JPStanley.)

Here’s our monthly list of the 20 most popular food, cooking, and recipe blog posts on Hugging the Coast in July…enjoy!

1. 75+ Recipes From James Beard Award Winning Chefs

2. Celebrate the 4th of July With These Wonderful Red, White, and Blue Recipes

3. 11 Gourmet Grilled Cheese Sandwich Recipes and Ideas to Add Deliciousness to Your Day

4. Instant Gratification Macaroni and Cheese Recipe: Baked Macaroni Flavor Without Using the Oven

5. French Onion Soup Lasagna Recipe

6. 16 Refreshing Summer Fruit Drink Recipes and Ideas to Help You Cool Off and Quench Your Thirst

7. Weird, Wacky, and Fun Ways to Make Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

8. 20 Delicious Recipes For Gourmet Salads Without Mayo

9. 7 Gourmet Macaroni and Cheese Recipes From the 2008 Tilamook Contest Winners

10. A Trio of Gourmet Cole Slaw Recipes

11. 9 Gourmet Grilled Cheese Sandwich Recipes to Celebrate National Grilled Cheese Month

12. Mayo Free Salad Ideas: Mediterranean Garlic Hummus Potato Salad Recipe

13. Food Preservation Part I: Blueberries, Cranberries, Raspberries, & Blackberries

14. Weekend Video Spotlight: How to Make Homemade Grilled Brick Oven Pizza on Your BBQ Grill

15. 40 Gourmet Ice Cream Recipes to Celebrate National Ice Cream Month

16. Celebrate National Iced Tea Month With These Delicious Sweet (and Unsweet) Tea Recipes

17. 10 Refreshing Salad Recipes and Ideas That Won’t Put You to Sleep

18. Inauguration Week Recipe: Red, White, and Blueberry Cobbler Cake Recipe

19. Cooking With Zest: Recipes That Make the Most of Fresh Lemon, Orange, and Lime Fruit Zest

20. Mayo Free Salad Ideas: Quick and Easy Kimchi Macaroni Salad Recipe

Please join us tomorrow to read our newest Fish For Friday Recipe on HuggingtheCoast.Com: Gazpacho With Grilled Shrimp and Avocado.

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• Doug DuCap’s Original Recipes: Part 2
• Doug DuCap’s Original Recipes: Part 3

Looking for a sweet and memorable dessert to serve at your next cookout, picnic, party, or barbecue? This July marks the 25th anniversary of National Ice Cream Month, a month we’ve decided to celebrate by sharing 40 delicious gourmet ice cream recipes that you can enjoy throughout the year.

If you’re a fan of freshly made, creamy, gourmet ice cream, you’ll probably want to bookmark this page so when you’re in the mood to make and eat gourmet ice cream, you’ll be able to easily find the inspiration you need to create ice cream flavors that are far more interesting and delicious than the generic, cookie cutter ice creams you find at the supermarket.

There are many ways to make gourmet ice cream. You can use such popular tools as an electric ice cream maker (one method which will enable you to make ice cream without having to churn it yourself) or you can use a handheld mixer or KitchenAid type stand mixer.

But there’s something special about making homemade ice cream that naturally encourages culinary experimentation and innovation.

Some unusual ways to make homemade ice cream include using liquid nitrogen to speed up the ice cream freezing process (a method popular with science teachers and fans of molecular gastronomy), making impromptu ice cream desserts in a jar or a Ziploc, or you can toss around a special ice cream making ball.

(Warning: as the ice cream begins to freeze, you’ll find the ice cream ball gets heavier and heavier to throw.)

Whatever you do, if you ever try making your own ice cream using liquid nitrogen, don’t attempt to do it in a blender like these guys did in this hilarious video.

Believe it or not, you can even make an ice cream like treat in a hurry using fresh, clean snow if you live somewhere that enjoys true winter weather. (Definitely not Charleston, SC.)

You can find out how to make homemade snow ice cream in the short video below:

If you’re thinking about purchasing an electric ice cream maker, you won’t want to miss this page by ice cream cookbook author David Lebovitz, Ice Cream Makers: Buying An Ice Cream Machine. Don’t own or plan to buy an electric ice cream maker? Lebovitz also has a good page which shares how to make ice cream without a machine.

One of the best things about making homemade ice cream is that once you make one flavor you’ll find yourself wanting to explore other flavor combinations, mix-ins, toppings and techniques. And that’s okay. Life is an adventure…just keep stirring!

• Homemade Vanilla Bean Ice Cream Recipe from Amateur Gourmet

• Peanut Butter Ice Cream Recipe from Kitchen Chick

• Tin Roof Ice Cream Recipe from Brown Eyed Baker (Pictured)
  

• Mexican Chocolate and Almond Ice Cream Recipe from Apartment Therapy

• Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream Recipe from Eating Out Loud

• Coffee Ice Cream Recipe from Simply Recipes

• Maple Ice Cream Recipe from Cupcake Project

• Pistachio Ice Cream Recipe from Use Real Butter

• Dulce de Leche Ice Cream Recipe from Apple Pie, Patis, and Pate

• Espresso Ice Cream Recipe from Baking Obsession (Pictured)
  

• Bourbon-Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe from Serious Eats

• Rum Raisin Ice Cream (Risí­ní­) Recipe from Ice Cream Ireland

• Cherry Ice Cream Recipe from The Italian Dish

• Butterscotch Ice Cream Recipe from Smitten Kitchen

• Super Simple Nutella Ice Cream Recipe from Chocolate and Zucchini

• Homemade Oreo Ice Cream Recipe from Amanda’s Cookin (Pictured)
  

• Vegan Banana Ice Cream from Karina’s Kitchen

• Skor Bar Ice Cream Recipe from Daily Unadventures in Cooking

• Our Original Recipe for a Magical Peanut Butter Moon Pie Ice Cream Milkshake (Pictured)

• Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream Recipe from Yum-O-Rama

• Passion Fruit Macadamia Nut Ice Cream Recipe from Andrea’s Recipes

• Home-Made Rhubarb Ice Cream Recipe from Nami-Nami (Pictured)
  

• Candied Bacon Ice Cream Recipe from David Lebovitz

• Eggless Anjeer (Fig) Ice Cream Recipe from Fun and Food Blog

• Horchata Ice Cream Recipe from What’s Cooking?

• Maison du Miel’s Heather Honey Ice Cream Recipe from 101 Cookbooks

• Apple Cider Ice Cream Recipe from Serious Eats

• Creole Cream Cheese Ice Cream Recipe from NOLA Cuisine

• Lavender Ice Cream Recipe from About.Com: Cooking for Two

• Matcha (Green Tea) Ice Cream Recipe from Rasa Malaysia

• Sweet Corn Ice Cream Recipe from Apartment Therapy

• Olive Oil and Pine Nut ice Cream Recipe from YumSugar

• Azuki (Red Bean) Ice Cream Recipe from Closet Cooking

• Thai Tea Ice Cream Recipe from Cafe Liz

• Saffron, Pistachio, and Cardamom Kulfi Recipe from Passionate About Baking

• Curry Carrot Ice Cream Recipe from Not Eating Out in NY

Enjoy!

Please join us tomorrow to read our newest daily food and cooking feature on HuggingtheCoast.Com, a recipe for Crunchy Fried Tortellini with Red Fennel Dipping Sauce.

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• Strawberry Waffle Ice Cream Milkshake Recipe
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(Photo Credits: Tin Roof Ice Cream Recipe by Brown Eyed Baker, Espresso Ice Cream by Baking Obsession, Homemade Oreo Ice Cream Recipe from Amanda’s Cookin.)

July is National Ice Cream Month…as if we needed an excuse to enjoy the cooling, creamy flavor of ice cream during the summer! Now celebrating its 25th anniversary, National Ice Cream Month is a great opportunity to explore new as well as tried and true ice cream flavors, textures, and toppings.

Below is a video that shows you how to make Deep Fried Ice Cream at home, a delicious novelty ice cream dessert which is often found at state fairs as well as at Mexican, Chinese, Thai, and Japanese restaurants.

The general principal involved in making Deep Fried Ice Cream is to coat a frozen ball of ice cream in an egg batter, then roll it in cornflakes or cookie crumbs, taking care to make sure the ice cream is fully covered so it doesn’t melt when briefly cooked in the hot oil.

Another variation is to tightly form poundcake around the ice cream before frying instead of battering it in the cornflakes or cookie crumbs.

Making Fried Ice Cream is surprisingly easy and doesn’t require exotic or expensive ingredients. However since the ice cream has to be refrozen several times to achieve the best results, Fried Ice Cream is more of a make ahead rather than an instant gratification dessert, so you’ll probably prefer to make it a day or so before you plan to serve it.

Popular toppings for Fried Ice Cream include powdered sugar, whipped cream, drizzled honey, and/or chocolate, caramel, maple, or butterscotch syrup. Fried Ice Cream is also wonderful topped with chopped nuts or fruit.

Enjoy!

Video by lateraligator.

You can see other recent Weekend Video Spotlight Videos here.

You can also see HuggingtheCoast.com’s growing collection of food, cooking, and travel videos here.

Please join us tomorrow to see this week’s Hugging the Coast.Com Week in Review, an overview of last week’s special food features (as well as selected previews from the week to come).

If you liked this video on HuggingtheCoast.Com, you might also enjoy:

• Magical Peanut Butter Moon Pie Ice Cream Milkshake Recipe
• 11 Gourmet Ice Cream Milkshake Recipes to Help You Survive the Dog Days of Summer
• 40 Gourmet Ice Cream Recipes to Celebrate National Ice Cream Month
• Yesterday’s Post-Fish For Friday Recipe: Wonderful Salmon Corn Cakes
• The Sunday Soda Menace: The Surprisingly Controversial History of Ice Cream
• Southern Comfort Foods: Low Country Layered Banana Pudding Recipe
• Red Velvet Devil Dawg Sandwich Cookies: Perfect For Ice cream Sandwiches
• A Roundup of Sweet Recipes to Bring in the Chinese New Year
• Weekend Video Spotlight: How to Make Homemade Maple Syrup
• Missing National Corndog Day (and Other Food on Sticks)!

(Photo Credit: Deep Fried Ice Cream by Jinworks.)