- This fruit cake is what connects all of us.
You're gonna get a lot of sweetness
in the dried fruits and that crunch from the nuts.
Whenever I bite into it, it just feels like home.
Hi, I'm Cheska, and today, I'm gonna show you
how to make Filipino Fruitcake.
Filipino fruitcake is almost like a cross
between a cake and a banana bread,
but with raisins and nuts and all these
different types of fruits.
We soak the raisins in the sweet wine
so they get super plump and juicy.
This recipe is much milder.
It's very family-friendly.
Whip the egg whites.
You're gonna get a workout for your arms.
You wanna get stiff peaks.
The fruitcake isn't an Asian
or traditionally Filipino dessert.
This recipe is originally from my great-grandmother,
and she passed it down to the different children
in her family.
Each family makes it a little bit differently.
Not everybody likes fruitcake.
And I'm just like, well, if you've had my
grandma's fruitcake, you would like it.
I'm sorry if you didn't have good fruitcake in your life.
Stop bashing fruitcake.
Now, we're gonna gradually add in the flour,
so it's gonna be smooth and not clumpy.
Look at that bright yellow color.
It's like the sun.
My grandmother would be the one
to make fruitcake every year.
But now that she's 90, she's kind of passed it on
to my uncle.
And so, he'd have an army of people with him
in the kitchen making fruitcake,
and my grandmother's the general.
And if my grandma says that the fruitcake tastes good,
that is a great complement.
This is where my grandma supervises my uncle.
Fold it with love, fold it with love.
I know it's super hard,
but that's how it's supposed to feel.
You're supposed to work your muscles.
Just imagine my grandma making this for 50 years.
If a grandma can do it, you can do it.
Christmas is a really big thing for the Philippines.
And we usually have more traditional Filipino desserts
like puto bumbong or bibingka.
And usually, we buy them from a street vendor
and it's served warm.
Filipinos go all out for Christmas.
Lights are everywhere.
There's Christmas trees everywhere.
September 1st, Christmas starts.
We're gonna stick this in the oven,
bake it low and slow, just so it's cooked very gently.
When you move to a totally different culture,
you get super, super homesick.
I come from a very big family, and we're all super close.
But we've moved to different parts of the world.
So this fruitcake is what connects all of us.
Whenever I bite into it, it just feels like home.
This fruitcake is super important to our family,
and it just wouldn't be like Christmas without it.
(upbeat music)
It's like I'm 10 years old again.
It's so good.
(upbeat music)
- [Man] Oh, yes.
(upbeat music)
- [Cheska] I'm sure my grandma's
gonna jump on me for this fruitcakes.
That's okay, it's gonna taste good.
And that's what matters.