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How can one cake be so divisive? There are some who love the stuff, cherishing their first fruitcake of the year like a rite of passage, a singular joy that can only be found in the Christmas season. Others groan, roll their eyes or outright laugh about the dense little loaves, taking joy in mocking the sticky treat. There is no middle ground. Here, we weigh in on this hefty debate!
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“It’s always the same: a morning arrives in November, and my friend, as though officially inaugurating the Christmas time of year that exhilarates her imagination and fuels the blaze of her heart, announces: ‘It’s fruitcake weather! Fetch our buggy. Help me find my hat.’” - Truman Capote
The Classic: Regular DeLuxe® Fruitcake • $30.95 collinstreet.com
Fruitcake is a timeless tradition. The very presence of a fruitcake heralds the start of the holiday season in a way that no other dessert could even try. So before you turn your nose up at this festive treat, learn a little bit about its history! The earliest recipe for fruitcake we have on record comes from ancient Rome. The cakes spread through Europe in the middle ages, and it was considered an absolute decadence because many of the ingredients were so rare. In the sixteenth century, sugar from the American colonies made candied fruits more affordable, making these cakes more widely available. The high alcohol content meant it could be shelf-stable for a long, long time; this made it a perfect Christmas treat, as it could be prepared in advance and eaten in the cold winter months.
The Best Gift: 3-1 Lb. Fruit Cake & Pecans Combo • $42.95 claxtonfruitcake.com
Fruitcake gained popularity as a dish for special occasions in Victorian England (Princess Diana and Kate Middleton both served fruitcake at their wedding receptions.) The Twelfth Night was celebrated with a fruitcake with a coin baked inside, bringing good luck to whoever found it (and presumably, bad luck to whoever accidentally swallowed it.) The fruitcake's status as the Christmas gift that keeps on givin’ was cemented when mail order fruitcakes made their debut in the US around 1918. These mailed cakes were offered up by a number of companies, including Collin Street Bakery and The Claxton Bakery, both of which still churn fruitcakes out to this day! The Local: 2 1/2 lb Kentucky Bourbon Fruitcake • $39.95 gethsemanifarms.org
