A couple of weeks ago I received an email from Charlie Louie from Hotly Spiced telling me that she’d received a notice from her webhost that her site was hogging the resources of her shared server and she was in trouble. I passed the information on to John because as a geek, I make a good cake.
He looked and looked and the problem wasn’t obvious so he did what methodical people do, he watched the spike in the CPU usage against what was going on in her traffic and the culprit turned out to be her comments feed. It was looping on itself until finally the server shit itself. I believe that’s the technical term or that’s what John called it anyway. It took him nearly 24 hours to isolate the problem.
All during that day I kept getting updates on where Charlie was in case John needed some information or help. She was on the school run and then there was a lunch she was committed to attend and then there was a meeting and then it was school run again and then there was shopping for dinner. I don’t know how she gets everything done because in addition to all of this, she has a top-class blog, a family to organise, a husband to spend time with AND they have a busy social life. She just gets it done.
Today I was sitting at my desk working and my Charlie started to cry. A few seconds later the doorbell rang and it was Charlie the postman with some packages. How do I know his name is Charlie? The first time he rang the doorbell I yelled, “It’s not for you, Charlie, go outside!”
I opened the door to a guy standing there looking like a deer caught in headlights and he said, “How did you know it was me??” So Charlie the postie has become our friend. He gives Charlie a pat and a treat every time he visits. So now, of course, the doorbell is always for the dog!
One of the packages was for John who’s building a camera trolley to do video work. Will it ever happen? Not sure but I’m looking forward to adding a video or two to Orgasmic Chef.
The other package said it was to Maureen and John and inside was this Fruit and Nut Cake!! I’d just seen photos of the Christmas cake the the day before on Hotly Spiced and thought it looked a lot better than my Christmas pudding. Fancy Christmas puddings are not my favourite.
I ripped open the box while John said, “That’s to me too, right?”
“Not until I take pictures,” I replied. The cake is beautiful and shiny and filled with glace fruit and nuts. As soon as I finished the photographs I brought the cake to the coffee table and we each took a piece.
“It’s filled with fruit and big nuts and almost no cake, I love that,” John said.
You should make this cake. Charlie Louie says it’s perfect for Christmas Eve but frankly, it’s pretty good on December 5th or any other day.
You’ll find the recipe on Hotly Spiced for Festive Fruit and Nut Cake. Thank you, Charlie Louie and you shouldn’t have but I’m really glad you did. 🙂
Oh my! Its sad fruit cakes get such a bad wrap. I personally love them and this one in particular looks absolutely divine. Love all the festive colors in it!
What a sweet post, and of course, always some funny bit to make me laugh… Charlie, go outside…. that was too good!
amazing the reaction of dogs to doorbells – or door knocks, we don’t have a ring or a bell, it’s one of those iron thingies that get banged on the door. Old fashioned, I suppose
enjoy your fruitcake!
What a nice thing for John to do! And Charlie’s gift is wonderful. Definitely a great way to celebrate the 5th — or any other day in December! A lot of blogs seem to have problems with their comment feeds –frustrating for the blogger and readers both. Anyway, great cake!
Charlie is a character, Maureen! I don’t always love fruitcake, but that one looks very inviting!
Oh, lucky you (& John) – Maureen – that cake of Charlie’s looks fab – really the only type of Christmas cake I like.
Charlie’s gift is wonderful! and the recipe’s from Hotly Spiced looks so good! It is an excellent idea for the 5th , the 25th and the whole month !
How nice that you two are so close!! Beautiful cake!
Thanks for much for such lovely words, Maureen. I’m so glad the cake made the journey to QLD. The postie promised me it would arrive the day after I posted it and I was glued to the tracking site making sure they did deliver it within 24 hours. You photographed it beautifully. I’m so glad you and John are enjoying it and yes, it was definitely for John too. A very small thank you for the big rescue you gave me! xx
Hi Maureen, I was eyeing this cake when Charlie first posted it, looks so delicious, that was so nice of you and your husband to help her out.
I’m always pleasantly surprised by the camaraderie among food bloggers. And what a lovely thank you. Hugs to you both and as always, a cuddle and pat for Charlie.
Maureen that cake of Charlie’s looks so delicious… full of fruit and nuts and packed with goodness! See, it’s that goodness that is in John, and Charlie and you! Lovely post.
That looks so Christmassy! Cheerful colourful and enticing. 🙂
What a great way to share the love guys, how awesome is our bloggy community! If Charlie the postman sees this post about Charlie the bloggers cake, he will want a piece for a treat just like Charlie the dog 🙂 x
lol…I love the way you write Maureen :)) xx
G’day What a lovely post and how thoughtful of Charlie and how generous of yours and John’s time!
Great cake…might have to put this on the list to do too Maureen!
Cheers! Joanne
What a sweet surprise! I love my Australian blogger friends…and you two are at the top of the list!
What a sweet gesture, this is the prettiest fruit cake I’ve ever seen!
Very nice looking cake you have there. I saw it on Charlie’s blog last week and thought then it looked delish. 🙂
Charlie’s fruit cakes are fantastic. I was lucky enough to get one last Christmas. And as a geek I too make a great cake 😛
Good deeds deserve great cakes, Maureen =) The fruit cake does look fantastic and now I have to hunt for the recipe at Hotly Spiced =)
Charlie’s recipes often are the best 😀
This fruit cake looks divine!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Looks like Charlie brings plenty of good cheer – all three of them 🙂
I am loving seeing all thr Christmas cake recipes coming out – I am yet to make a Christmas cake but am so keen to try – stalking your recipe! Bec x
What a lovely and festive gift!
How nice, what a great surprise! Great story too, funny with Charlie!
What a beautiful post for me to come back to. You and Charlie make such an awesome blogging pair. Love the look of the cake. Wish I also had such awesome blogger friends nearby!
LOL Minnie, Charlie is in Sydney nearly 650 miles away. I bet you’ve got heaps of bloggers within 600 miles of you. With the internet, distance means nothing unless you’re sending a fruit cake. 🙂
No way. I literally just posted on my facebook about how I think I would really like fruitcake – I kept thinking how good it would be to bite into a dense cake filled with lots of dried fruit and nuts – I am not a fan of plain cake and I like my desserts to have texture. I like the sound of this recipe better because I wasn’t sure about the whole “make it in advance and douse with alcohol” part of traditional fruitcake. I pinned the recipe from the hotly spiced site 🙂
So glad you read my mind from across the world and linked to this recipe!
That’s a lovely thing to do. Your John is very handy though and it was kind of you to help out a mate. I love those cakes which are big on fruit and nuts and with very little cake too. x
What a beautiful thank you to receive bet it tasted amazing!
That looks amazing!! Hubby wouldn’t share any with me, he loves fruit and nut cake!!
My mom always made fruit cake at Christmas time and gave it as gifts, people raved about it, now you’ve got me wondering about that recipe!
Thank you for introducing Hotly Spiced to me 😉 I followed her on instagram and Facebook…she does seem like the real deal, looking forward to following! xo Sheila
Sheila, Charlie Louie is one of us!! I know you know what I mean by that. 🙂
You are too sweet! And, this looks very sweet. 🙂
Maureen, you and John are both angels. You save a fellow blogger, then write a post talking about how wonderful she is when in fact you two are the heroes in this story! That fruit cake looks wonderful. I love that it’s so colourful! I could do with a slice of it absolutely right now, it’s afternoon tea time!
Nah, food bloggers are the finest kind of people. We all look after one another. When one has a talent in one area, he or she shares. We make everyone better when it works like that and I’m sure Charlie Louie would agree. She’s done heaps for me.
That cake looks so beautiful! I love the red and green cherries – like little Christmas jewels!
Perfect cake for this season, thanks for sharing this
Funny Maureen. The tale of three Charlie’s. That cake is one serious delight , because I have one…..and you are one serious friend and the reason I haven’t given up blogging just yet!
Between you and Charlie, I am not sure I could pick who the bigger sweetheart is! I so adore posts like this Maureen that exemplify the good -in all parties! And that fruit cake is indeed splendid!
Between you and Charlie, I am not sure I could pick who the bigger sweetheart is! I so adore posts like this Maureen that exemplify the good -in all parties! And that fruit cake is indeed splendid!!
Most of the people I know don’t like fruit and nut cakes, but I absolutely love them. Going to have to go check out Charlie’s recipe. Fun Post Maureen!