The LuLac Edition #5, 510, November 29th, 2025

 

FOOD-

TASTIC NEWS

 

HOLIDAY FRUIT CAKES FOR CHRISTMAS

Forty eight hours after Thanksgiving, we look at that great American treat, the holiday fruitcake. It’s been used as a post dinner treat, a full blown dessert or in some cases a door stop. They have been annual gifts of expectation and joy  as well as desperation of what to give the family who has everything.

HOW IT STARTED

The earliest recipe from ancient Rome lists pomegranate seeds, pine nuts, and raisins that were mixed into barley mash. In the Middle Ages, honey, spices, and preserved fruits were added.

Fruitcakes soon proliferated all over Europe. Recipes varied greatly in different countries throughout the ages, depending on the available ingredients, as well as (in some instances) church regulations forbidding the use of butter, regarding the observance of Fasting. Pope Innocent VIII (1432–1492) finally granted the use of butter, in a written permission known as the ‘Butter Letter' or Butterbrief in 1490, giving permission to Saxony to use milk and butter in the Stollen fruitcakes.

Starting in the 16th century, sugar from the American Colonies (and the discovery that high concentrations of sugar could preserve fruits) created an excess of candied fruit, thus making fruitcakes more affordable and popular. The 17th-century English fruitcake was originally yeast-leavened, with the rum and dried fruit helping to extend the shelf life of the cake.

 

OUR CAKES, LIKE ITS PEOPLE ARE FULL OF NUTS

Typical American fruitcakes are rich in fruit and nuts.

Mail-order fruitcakes in America began in 1913. Some well-known American bakers of fruitcake include Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana, Texas, and The Claxton Bakery in Claxton, Georgia. Both Collin Street and Claxton are Southern companies with inexpensive access to large quantities of nuts, for which the expression "nutty as a fruitcake" was derived in 1935. Commercial fruitcakes are often sold from catalogues by charities as a fund raiser.

Fruitcakes are also made and sold by Christian monasteries, as a means of supporting the monks and nuns who reside there. Some well-known American monasteries which offer fruitcake include Abbey of Gethsemani, in Trappist, Kentucky; Assumption Abbey in Ava, Missouri; Monastery of the Holy Spirit, in Conyers, Georgia; and Trappist Abbey in Carlton, Oregon. The fruitcake produced by the Trappists of the Abbey of Gethsemani in Trappist, Kentucky earned the "best overall fruitcake" accolade from The Wall Street Journal.  During an interview on Russell Howard's Good News, astronaut Chris Hadfield recounted that a fruitcake made by "Trappist monks in the Ozarks" was found and served aboard the International Space Station during Hadfield's tenure as commander.

Most American mass-produced fruitcakes are alcohol-free, but those made according to traditional recipes are saturated with liqueurs or brandy and covered in powdered sugar, both of which prevent mould. Brandy (or wine) soaked linens can be used to store the fruitcakes, and some people feel that fruitcakes improve with age.[citation needed]

In the United States, fruitcake has become a ridiculed dessert, in part due to inexpensive mass-produced cakes of questionable age. Some attribute the beginning of this trend to The Tonight Show host Johnny Carson. He would joke that there is really only one fruitcake in the world, passed from family to family. After Carson's death, the tradition continued with "The Fruitcake Lady" (Marie Rudisill), who made appearances on the show and offered her "fruitcake" opinions. In fact, the fruitcake had been a butt of jokes on television programs such as Father Knows Best and The Donna Reed Show years before The Tonight Show debuted. It appears to have first become a vilified confection in the early 20th century, as evidenced by Warner Brothers cartoons. It has also been used as a derogatory term for people who are considered weak, strange, or insane.

Since 1995, Manitou Springs, Colorado, has hosted the Great Fruitcake Toss on the first Saturday of every January. Leslie Lewis of the Manitou Springs Chamber of Commerce said that they encourage the use of recycled fruitcakes. The all-time Great Fruitcake Toss record is 1,420 feet, set in January 2007 by a group of eight Boeing engineers who built the "Omega 380", a mock artillery piece fueled by compressed air pumped by an exercise bike.

IN CANADA

The fruitcake is commonly eaten during the Christmas season in Canada. Rarely is it seen during other times of the year. The Canadian fruitcake is similar in style to the UK version. However, there is rarely icing on the cake, and alcohol is not commonly put into Christmas cakes that are sold. The cakes are shaped like a small loaf of bread, and often covered in marzipan.

Dark, moist and rich Christmas fruitcakes are the most frequently consumed, with white Christmas fruitcake less common. These cakes tend to be made in mid-November to early December when the weather starts to cool down. They also can be a gift generally exchanged between business associates and close friends/family.

It is called gâteau aux fruits in Quebec and New-Brunswick.

 

Shelf life

When a fruitcake contains a good deal of alcohol, it can be preserved for many years. For example, a fruitcake baked in 1878 has been kept as an heirloom by a family in Tecumseh, Michigan; as of 2019, the baker's great-great-granddaughter is the custodian of the cake.Wrapping the cake in alcohol-soaked linen before storing is one method of lengthening its shelf life.[citation needed]

A 106-year-old fruitcake discovered in 2017 by the Antarctic Heritage Trust was described as in "excellent condition" and "almost" edible. (wikipedia, LuLac, Life Magazine archives)