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Fruitcake or fruit cake is a cake made with Candied fruit or dried fruit, nuts, and , and optionally soaked in liquor. In the United Kingdom, certain rich versions may be iced and Cake decorating.
Fruitcakes are usually served in celebration of and Christmas. Given their rich nature, fruitcakes are most often consumed on their own, as opposed to with condiments (such as butter or cream).Rowan, Terry. Having a Wonderful Christmas Time Film Guide. Retrieved June 12, 2015. Fruit cake is different to Raisin bread, but may share similar toppings and mixtures.
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. Stollen history
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.Robert Sietsema. "A Short History of Fruitcake" , The Village Voice, November 20–26, 2002. The 17th-century English fruitcake was originally yeast-leavened, and the rum and dried fruit helped extend the shelf life of the cake.
There is also another specific type of fruitcake prepared for Easter, which is known as kozunak ( ).
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 are a staple during Christmas dinner and 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.
Stollen is loaf-shaped and often powdered with icing sugar on the outside. It is usually made with yeast, butter, water, and flour, with the addition of citrus zest, Candied rinds, , and .
The most famous Stollen is the Dresdner Stollen, Meyers Lexikon : "Besonders bekannt ist der Dresdner Stollen" ("the Dresden Stollen is especially well-known") sold at the Dresden Christmas market, the Striezelmarkt. Official Dresden Stollen, produced by only 150 bakers in Dresden and some adjacent settlements, bears a special seal depicting Elector Augustus II the Strong. Typically, it is covered with a crust of compacted powdered sugar around 1 cm thick, but it is actually defined by its richness in butter and certain fruit and nuts: Per kilogram flour, Dresdner Stollen is mandated by law to contain at least 650 grams Raisin, 500 grams of butter, 200 grams succade, and 150 grams of almonds. Veröffentlichung des Antrags zum Schutz der Bezeichnung „Dresdner Stollen“ usw. im Amtsblatt der europäischen Union mit genauer Produktspezifikation The recipe originated in 1491, when after several generations of lobbying by Elector Ernest, Duke Albert III, and their ancestors, Pope Innocent VIII gave an exemption to the Roman Catholic ban on using butter during Lent to Saxon bakers. «Butterbrief» und «päpstliche Bulle» – Nachrichten – SchwyzKultur
In Bremen, the local fruitcake called Klaben is traditionally sold and eaten during the Christmas season. Bremer Klaben is a kind of stollen which is not dusted with powdered sugar after baking. Both Dresdner Stollen and Bremen Klaben are protected geographical indications.
In Southern Germany and the Alpine region, Früchtebrot (also called Berewecke, Birnenbrot, Hutzenbrot, Hutzelbrot, Kletzenbrot, Schnitzbrot, or Zelten) is a sweet, dark bread baked with nuts and dried fruit, e.g. apricots, figs, dates, plums, etc.
There are various types of fruitcakes from the Emilia-Romagna region, most being dark and heavily spiced with an abundance of candied fruit and nuts. The certosino from Bologna is a round cake similar to panforte but with aromatic spices and a variety of whole-halved candied fruit decorating the top; dark chocolate is often added to the dough for a richer flavour. The certosino is low and very dense. Panone, produced in much of Emilia, is similar to the certosino, but with a lighter, fluffier dough and candied fruit inside the cake rather than used as decoration. Panpepato from Ferrara has a dough similar to panone but has a higher ginger content. Candied fruit is not often found and instead there is a high concentration of nuts within the dough; the entire cake is often coated in dark chocolate.
Gubana is a Christmas/holiday cake from the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, specifically from the area around Cividale del Friuli. It is a leavened dough cake with a filling of nuts, dried fruit, sugar, and grappa which is rolled into a spiral filled tube which is then twisted into the shape of a rose or snail's shell. Gubana is often eaten with alcohol (slivovitz or grappa) around the holiday season. It combines Italian, Friulan, and Slovenian tastes and cooking styles to create a unique sweet.
Panettone is a sweet bread (widely available throughout Italy and in many other countries), served around Christmas, which is traditionally filled with dried and candied fruits, with a bread-like consistency.
Most New Zealand wedding cakes are finely iced and decorated fruitcake often several tiers high. Most fruitcake is eaten in the Christmas period. It is dark, rich and made from multiple dried fruits. Homemade cakes may use brandy or sherry to enhance flavour rather than as a preservative. They may be square or round, iced or uniced. A Christmas cake is usually simply decorated with a Christmas scene or the words Merry Christmas.
The traditional Christmas cake is a round fruitcake covered in marzipan and then in white royal icing or fondant icing. It is often further decorated with snow scenes, holly leaves, and berries (real or artificial), or tiny decorative European robin or snowmen. It is also the tradition for a similar kind of cake to be served at weddings.
In Yorkshire, fruitcake is often served accompanied with cheese. Fruitcakes in the United Kingdom often contain Zante currant and glace cherries, an example of this type being the Genoa cake. A type of fruitcake which originated in Scotland, the Dundee Cake, owes its name to Keiller's marmalade. It does not contain glace cherries, but is decorated with almonds.
Fruitcake was historically referred to as plum cake in England from around 1700.
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 Mail order by charities as a fund raiser.
Fruitcakes are also made and sold by Christianity 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.
Most American mass-produced fruitcakes are alcohol-free, but those made according to traditional recipes are saturated with 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.
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.Photos from the 2009 event: www.blueskiesbb.com/fruitcake-popup.html
A 106-year-old fruitcake discovered in 2017 by the Antarctic Heritage Trust was described as in "excellent condition" and "almost" edible.
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.
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