What is it with Americans and fruitcakes? For many years we used to throw an annual midday New Year’s Day party. Bloody Marys, big buffet table, Niman Ranch ham, stuff like that. People seemed to enjoy the food, but we noticed that there was usually leftover fruitcake. We were puzzled why there were so few takers, because we had gone to a lot of trouble to order this particular confection from Vermont. Perhaps because we came from Canada, where fruitcake—dark, moist, and rich—is a Christmas tradition, we didn’t know that to Americans fruitcake was associated with a different tradition. According to Wiki, “the fruitcake had been a butt of jokes on television programs such as Father Knows Best and The Donna Reed Show . . . and appears to have first become a vilified confection in the early 20th century, as evidenced by Warner Brothers cartoons.” According to Wiki again, there is a town in Colorado that hosts something called the Great Fruitcake Toss on the first Saturday of every January, using recycled—that is, uneaten—fruitcakes. No wonder so many of our guests gave our fruitcake a pass. We stuck to our guns and continued to serve fruitcake (with cheese, a Yorkshire custom) but we didn’t make many converts.
It’s the candied fruit. What a thing to do to an innocent piece of fruit. Edward Gorey made a great holiday card on this topic.
Gorey aside, it is possible to make fruitcake without candied fruit. The fruit cake we buy from Cavendish, Vermont has dried fruits and nuts but no candied fruit. I have eaten stollen in Germany and panforte in Italy, neither had candied fruit as I recall.
Oh I agree it’s possible to find non-sickening varieties, and I have had the two you mention as well as home-made, all with no ill effects. But having grown up in the relative food desert that was Orange Cty. Calif. in the fifties and sixties to Midwestern parents not long removed from Nebraska it was always store bought with the candied fruit. Also a popular gift from relatives, employers and acquaintances, though I think the popular myth that there was really only one fruitcake endlessly regifted is untrue, as I recall several half-loaves tossed out after it was clear that they were only going to be good for a Twinkie longevity experiment.
Anyway, I suspect that more than one of your guests has a similar backstory that causes them to reflexively shy away from fruitcake. It’s nothing personal that they cannot fathom your fondness for a shadow from their childhood, but they won’t necessarily thank you for the reminder.
I like fruitcake. Especially with hot coffee and a book to read. After reading this, I’m going to town tomorrow and buy a small fruitcake. Great post. Thank you. Marvin
The fruitcake sold me at a local bakery claimed to have no candied fruit. It was very tasty and I will buy more next year when they make it again.
I’m late to this discussion, but I’m an ardent fan of fruitcake, and have very often made my own. Not a candied fruit or a neon maraschino cherry has ever sullied my productions, which will, I believe, outlive the liveliest Twinkie, but only because of the regular drenching with brandy that any self-respecting fruitcake deserves. Besides being delicious, particularly with a good cup of tea or a glass of sherry, fruitcake is the ultimate survival food. Backpacking friends take along a generous portion of fruitcake for their hikes because it provides instant and intense energy when needed, and a relaxing nibble at the end of an endurance trek across ice fields. Long live fruitcake! I say.