Christmas dinner with the Fruitcake Lady
Ju.D Lao has distinguished herself as the Philippines’ Fruitcake Lady, thanks to her delicious fruitcake, which she has prepared every Christmas for some 36 years now for a high-end clientele of socialites, politicians, celebrities, leading corporate clients, top business people, etc. Ju.D herself has won several awards for her fruitcake, including the Philippine Quality Awards for Business Excellence, National Product Quality Excellence Awards and Marketing Excellence Award from the Asian Institute of Marketing.
These last few years, however, Ju.D’s daughter Jamie has been adding new items to Ju.D’s usual selection of fruitcakes, which include her classic fruitcake, apricot-cranberry fruitcake, coffee prune cake, Ju.D Blue, Chewy Chewkies and ginger cookies.
Jamie introduced delicious new products at student-friendly prices such as almond chocolate chip cookies, Mr. Strawberry, New York peppermint, espresso nougats, and the new cookies and cream nougat. The success of her products has proven that they can, indeed, attract a younger market, too.
This year, Jamie will be taking Ju.D’s Fruitcakes to Eastwood Mall’s Weekend Gourmet Market every Saturday and Sunday, and to the Soderno Weekend Market in Alabang, organized by RJ Ledesma. “Every year, we’ve always had callers who ask us if we sell in Alabang, and now we’re very happy to finally have that chance,” Jamie said.
The schedule for Eastwood Mall is every Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. As for Soderno, it’s 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday.
HOW TO SERVE THE FRUITCAKE
Both mother and daughter have a special way of serving Ju.D fruitcakes. Jamie and Ju.D advise refrigerating or even freezing the fruitcake before serving it.
“I really prefer to freeze my fruitcakes for a couple of hours first before cutting it,” Jamie says. “That’s to make sure that the fruitcake won’t crumble under the knife because it’s got a lot of liquor in it, making it really moist. Frozen, you’ll get really clean cuts that are better for presentation, not to mention more delicious. It will be a little hard, but the trick is to just use a big and sturdy knife, and slice firmly with one stroke,” explains Jamie.
Start your Noche Buena with queso de bola, grapes and wine. Follow with Christmas ham, barbecue, potato macaroni salad, lechon, paella, rellenong manok, spaghetti, lumpia, and escabeche. Cap the meal with Ju.D’s fruitcake a la mode.
* * *
For more information, call 633-1188, 633-0260, or e-mail jud_fruitcakes@yahoo.com. You can also “like” the Ju.D’s Fruitcakes page on Facebook.
