The Sisters and the Fruitcakes

     For years a major fundraiser for the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose has been there annual fruitcake sale.   

Sister Theresa Beck

     Back in 1960, Sister Theresa Beck started baking fruitcakes, using her family's secret old world recipe.  Each year the Sisters made 3000 pounds of batter and produced about 1500 fruitcakes. 
     This was about the time that my older sister, Diane, joined the order.  Diane became known as Sister Marie Yvonne*.  Over the years, Sister Marie Yvonne, helped with the production of the fruitcakes.
    Sister Theresa kept that family recipe a secret even though others helped in the production.  Sister Theresa was born in 1904 so as the years wore on, her superiors became concerned that if something happened to her no one would know the recipe.

Sister Marie Yvonne

    Several sisters were recruited to figure out the recipe as the cakes were made.  For each new ingredient, Sister Marie Yvonne would make sure that she  recorded the ingredients and the quantity.  She would check this information on subsequent batches. This took a while and other sisters also helped  determine the recipe.  But eventually the proper ingredients and quantities were determined.    
    Sister Theresa passed away in 1990 but her family recipe is safe with the Dominican Sisters of Mission San Jose.




Sister Marie Yvonne passed away six years ago this Thursday.  I miss her.

Fruitcake Story