As we approach Christmas and the many foods families consider their family tradition many different foods come to mind. Whether the recipe has been handed down through generations or it is a food considered an important part of the holiday celebration many foods come to mind. I was in the grocery section of our largest supermarket in our area this weekend and as I scanned the shelves, all of a sudden I saw the display of fruitcakes.
Now I have to admit, fruit cake isn’t at the top of my usual dessert list. As so many have commented, it seems the cake is overrun with fruit, either candied or dried with flat tasting cake like dough baked in to hold the fruit together. In other words it’s hard to find what most consider a “good one”.
A few years ago I found a small family bakery in the country between Oswego and Columbus. They made the best fruitcake I had ever tasted and all was good until after a few years they had decided to retire and move back to either Illinois or Indiana where they had come from.
So I decided to do some research and learn the origin of the Fruitcake. Modern Americans have fruitcake jokes. In Manitoba Springs, CO they apparently have an event where participants are urged to throw the heavy cake as far as they can. It’s a tongue-in-cheek gag that indicates everyone hates fruitcake. However there are several recipes that are really quite palatable. It’s just trying to find them. The truth is that the forebears of our fruitcake played a largely ceremonial role.
We know the Romans made a sort of sweetened cake of pomegranate seeds, pine nuts and raisins into a mash of barley. You might call it a sort of energy bar used by traveling troops, but when it came to northern Europe it was made lighter with wheat flour, hazelnuts and walnuts. The nuts were for ceremony rather than taste. At the end of the annual nut harvest, fruitcakes, studded with nutmeats were baked and stored away until the following year when they were eaten in hopes of a good nut harvest. Fruitcake has continued to be very popular in England since Victorian times and no British wedding or christening is complete without a rich, dark fruitcake covered with marzipan and finished with fondant frosting.
No one knows just when fruitcake made it’s holiday appearance but the English tradition of handing out a slice of the robust stuff to the poor after carols had been sung may have had something to do with it. During a time of year when you couldn’t get fresh fruits, fruitcake might have been a welcome treat.
Light fruitcakes are made with granulated sugar, light corn syrup, almonds, golden raisins, pineapple and apricots. Dark fruitcakes are made with molasses, brown sugar, raisins, prunes, dates and cherries, pecans and walnuts. Made several weeks before Christmas, Some “feed” the cake by adding liquor to the finished cake several times before serving during the holidays.
Yes, fruitcake has a rather interesting history to say the least.
Source: National Geographic
