Looks like your Maha is way ahead of your manila as far as maturity of fruit. Would love to see a pic of. the Manila tree. Funny you talk about heat and it's effect on setting fruit cuz I think I've discovered that it DOES affect the tree holding fruit. I waited too long this year to cover up both my Coconut Cream and Edward mango with shade cloth and they dropped all mangoes except 3. But of course can't be sure, but that's what it seems like....at least out here in Palm Springs.... Where in SoCal are you? Myamberdawg

It's a British tradition. We do it in Australia too. In Oz, a traditional wedding cake is an aged fruit cake wrapped on the top and sides first with a thick (1/2") layer of marzipan, then a thick layer of what we call plastic icing and I think you call it fondant. Christmas cakes are similar but often have royal icing instead of plastic icing. I make stained glass window fruit cakes for Christmas, which are whole pieces or large chunks of different kinds of glace (candied) fruit- red and green cherries, pineapple, peaches, apricots, pears and figs, and dried fruit- prunes and white raisins, whole nuts- pecans, almonds and Brazils, stuck together with very little cake mix.

Seagrass, I live in Central Wisconsin now. Aside from the two plants in great soil, the rest of my rhubarb is growing in super sandy soil and a good bit of shade and has to compete with tree roots. Those plants need supplemental water and fertilizer to keep growing through the summer. Generally cool weather. Some 'summers' we're lucky to hit 90 degrees for a couple of days! So don't give up on your plants. If the plants are still small, you could dig in some bagged cow manure & compost around the perimeter of the plants and/ or toss them a couple handfuls of high nitrogen fertilizer. Manure & compost preferable, of course. Also, some moisture crystals dug in to help retain soil moisture if rains aren't reliable. In Oklahoma, rhubarb is mostly a spring crop because the heat and drought zap it. Here in Wisconsin, we can harvest from the plants all summer. Edited to add... Seagrass, Lindac....would you, pretty please, share the rhubarb custard pie recipe? I've never tasted it and keeping hearing/ reading how wonderful it is. Just a mention...my grandmother made wonderful jams and jellies. My favorite of hers, hands down, was a mulberry rhubarb jam. My second favorite jam is blackberry...the mulberry rhubarb jam reminded me of a very rich tasting blackberry jam.

Meta Givens has a pretty good fruit cake recipe. It used the candied fruits, golden raisins, nuts, regular dark raisins, molasses, etc. You bake it, then douse it with some fruit flavored brandy and then decorate it if desired, and you can also put a glaze over it as well. Using the brandy or other choice alcohol helps set it and ripen it, and it freezes well, but you have to let it ripen for 4 weeks first. If you would like the recipe, I would be happy to give it to you. The recipe is pretty large, but I could certainly cut it down for you, or you could do that yourself if you wanted to. Oh heck, I'm going to just give you the recipe. I was trying to get away without having to type it all out because I'm really tired from being up all night baking this fruit cake of all things as well as some cheesecakes. lol. OLD FASHIONED FRUITCAKE: original recipe divided by 4, all ingredients should be at room temperature. Soak Fruit overnight in ½ cup of medium syrup, about 24 hours to soften fruit: recipe at bottom. Fruit mix: 3 ¼ -oz. seedless raisins = ¼ box 15 oz. seedless raisins 7 ½-oz. Golden raisins = ½ box golden raisins 1 6 – 8 oz. pkg pitted dates, cut into slices ½ lbs. candied citron = 8 oz. ¼ lbs. candied pineapple = 4 oz. 1 oz. candied orange peel 1 oz. candied lemon peel 2 oz. candied cherries 2 oz. blanched almonds slices Mix dry ingredients together: 1 ½ cups flour, sifted ½ tsp baking soda ½ tsp salt less a pinch ½ tsp cinnamon ¼ tsp allspice 2 shakes of ground cloves, the original amount is ½ tsp 2 shakes of ground nutmeg, the original amount is ½ tsp 2 shakes of mace, the original amount is ½ tsp Cream together: ½ stick of butter or 4 TBSP ¼ cup Brown sugar plus 2 tsp, packed 1 egg 2 oz. currant jelly, but apple jelly or other jelly may be substituted. ¼ cup light molasses 3 oz. buttermilk alternating with dry ingredients Add wet ingredients to dry and mix in candied fruits. To make syrup, heat ¼ cup sugar and ½ cups water to boiling, then simmer 5 minutes. Add 2 ½ tsp white corn syrup. The full recipe makes 2 large fruit cakes loaf pans plus 7 of the half-sized loaf pans. This is enough batter to make a large tube pan cake. Prepare your pans by lining them with parchment paper or take a brown grocery sack and cut it to the shape of your pan, or use brown wrapping paper and cut it to shape of pans covering all sides and leave 1 inch over top edge to help get cake out of pan if using loaf pans. Butter inside of pans to help adhere paper liner to them. Brush on a little whole milk on top, to help keep cakes from browning on top too much and to help give it a nice shine. Bake fruitcake between 275˟F. and 325˟F. for about 1 hour, or until done depending on the size of your baking pan, but do not go higher than 325˟F. Put a pan of hot water on bottom rack of oven when baking fruit cake. If they start to get too brown, add a piece of foil over them or parchment paper. *Note! It is much easier to just get one of the small containers of chopped mix fruit to use in recipe plus the dates and raisins added extra. I always make the full recipe, plus I add the dates and raisins, plus about 1/3 of a container of candied red cherries as the fruit mix already has red and green candied cherries. I use the rest to decorate the cake after I glaze it. I use apricot brandy to drizzle on top of the fruitcake, then make an apricot glaze to add on top, then add my halved candied cherries on top and or whole pecans to decorate the fruit cakes. Wrap them in plastic wrap and let them ripen in a cool dark place. After 4 weeks you can wrap freezer paper around them or heavy-duty foil and freeze them. We’ve had fruitcake last in the fridge for a full year due to the brandy and sugar content. They were perfectly fine, and I’ve also frozen them. Either way is fine. Apricot Glaze: ½ cup cold water 1 cup white sugar 2 oz. chopped apricots Boil for about 5 minutes the add ¼ cup white corn syrup and cook for another 1 minute. I add a little apricot brandy to it once it’s cooled down slightly for more flavor.