Imagine if the hardest decision you had to make at year’s end is to toss or tuck into a fruitcake. I know three people who love fruitcake. Given the thousands of dried fruit and nut cakes sold by Old Cavendish, Claxton, Collin Street, Southern Supreme, Robert Lambert, The Date Lady, and those sold by Trappist and Benedictine monks, someone likes fruitcake. For others, there’s no greater sin than to serve fruitcake for dessert.
Fruitcakes trace back six centuries
The earliest reference to fruitcakes dates back to the early Romans. Their “cake” included pomegranate seeds, pine nuts, and raisins mixed into a barley mash. In the Middle Ages, honey, spices and preserved fruits were added for sustenance as crusaders went to battle. Queen 
Victoria was a champion of fruitcake. At a Victorian tea, the fruitcake was aged one year, showing English restraint and moderation.
During wartime, fruitcakes were often sent to soldiers in airtight tins. The term, “nutty as a fruitcake” was spoken in Eugene O’Neill’s 1914 play, “The Movie Man.” The quote: “…we sure are as nutty as fruitcakes or we wouldn’t be here.” Truman Capote wrote about fruitcakes in “A 
Christmas Memory” for a 1956 issue of Mademoiselle magazine. The story recounts young Capote’s time with an eccentric cousin, who resorted to fruitcake-making when she deemed it “fruitcake weather.” In the 1960s, the late talk show host Johnny Carson joked “that there was only one fruitcake in the world, passed along from family to family.” 
An “almost edible” 106 year-old fruitcake, still in its original tin, was discovered in 2017 in Victoria Land, East Antarctica. It is believed to have been brought over on the Terra Nova exploration of Robert Falcon Scott.
So why the bad rap on fruitcakes?
Some American fruitcakes are alcohol-free, and if not made with quality ingredients, can be incredibly dry and tasteless. Several overseas and U.S. fruitcake makers infuse rum, whisky or brandy to feed the fruitcake, adding heft, moisture and a nice buzz. The best fruitcakes are made with certified organic ingredients, which include preserved fruits (apricots, pineapple, papaya, cherries, dates, raisins), walnuts, pecans, cashews, brown sugar or honey, and butter.
The Better-Known Fruitcake Makers
Two southern fruitcake bakers – Claxton in south Georgia and Collin Street in Texas — both had inexpensive access to 
large quantities of nuts from farmers. Collin Street was likely first, still using the same recipe Gus Weidmann brought to Corsicana, Texas from Wiesbaden, Germany in 1896. The bakery found itself in the mail order business when John Ringling’s circus troupe delighted in the firm’s DeLuxe© Fruitcake. Word of this luxury dessert spread. www.collinstreet.com
In the early 1900s, Savino Tos, an Italian pastry-maker, passed through Claxton, Georgia, and decided to open a bakery. In the fall, Tos offered a premium quality fruitcake with fine fruits and nuts. When Tos retired in 1945, he sold his business to long-time employee, Albert Parker. As refrigeration and mass distribution emerged, Parker decided to specialize in high-quality, mass-produced fruitcakes. In the early 1950s, the Tampa Civitan Club, a non-profit that raises funds for intellectually and physically-challenged youth and adults, approached Parker about selling fruitcakes as a fundraiser. To this day, many Civitan clubs continue this holiday fundraiser. www.claxtonfruitcake.com
In the 1950s, Catholic monasteries — Assumption Abbey in the Missouri Ozarks and the Abbey of Gethsemani in 
Trappist, Kentucky — began making small-batch fruitcakes for mail order, as part of their vows to use their hands to make baked products that could be sold, and be self-sustaining for the communities. Together, they sell between 40,000- and 60,00o fruitcakes annually. www.assumptionabbey.org www.gethsemanifarms.org
The Innovative Fruitcake Culinary Artists
Andrew and Mary Omrod, owners of Old Cavendish Organic Fruitcake, decided a blend of certified organic fruits and nuts, butter creamed with honey, and the mix of organic spices and liqueurs would yield a moist, nicely-flavored fruitcake, more palatable to 
the tastes of non-fruitcake lovers. Originally, they gave their cakes as gifts. Encouragement from friends and family led them to transform their hobby into a Vermont-based culinary business in 1986. Old Cavendish offers various size fruitcakes, all organic and gluten-free. https://cavendishfruitcake.com
The Scott family showcased its 
Southern Supreme fruitcake at a Christmas show in Raleigh in the late ’80s. In 1989, they began selling fruitcakes and other sweets locally and by mail order. Their cake is chock full of English walnuts, pecans, golden raisins, dates, pineapples and candied cherries.
Charles Passey, a writer with The Wall Street Journal, called Robert Lambert’s fruitcake: “…an artisan cake that gives the dessert a 
gourmet pedigree.” Lambert bases his fruitcakes on those made by his English grandmother. His fruitcakes are high-end, yet are quite unique in ingredients. His winter fruitcake includes dried apricots, cherries, pears, nectarines, nestled in guava juice, Kirsch, and Pear William au de vies (a colorless, pear-based, 80-proof brandy). Brazil nuts, whole blanched toasted almonds, hazelnuts are folded into the batter. Add in white grapefruit peels, blood orange, Rangpur lime, and Lisbon lemon. To finish, the cake is soaked in cognac, infused with Lambert’s own champagne geranium leaves.
His dark fruitcakes include dates, prunes, raisins, molasses, brown sugar, candied citrus and white grapefruit peels, bergamot orange, young ginger root, Mandalo pomelo, and Japanese shekwasha peels, an aromatic with lemon and pineapple notes. Hazelnuts, pecans and blanched walnuts are folded in. These whisky-soaked cakes, once packaged, are adorned with a California bay leaf and candied blood orange star. All Lambert fruitcakes are wrapped in cheesecloth and tied with linen string. Lambert suggests retaining the original packaging, while keeping the fruitcake fresh inside a watertight wrap. www.robertlambert.com
Then, there’s The Date Lady Fruitcake. When Ryan Sandlie was teaching in the United Arab Emirates, his spouse, Colleen, found organic dates, with a taste so different from those found in the states. In the Middle East, there are more than 100 date cultivars. One day, she found a pure date syrup to replace sugar. Returning home, she brought with her several jars of date syrup, and the Sandlies found themselves importing more and more date syrup. She has since found an organic date grower in California for her supply.
In 2012, The Sandlies decided to make a business of selling various date products, including an organic, GMO-free, gluten-free fruitcake. It’s made in small batches, with dates and organic fruits as centerpiece ingredients, along with organic pecans, grain-free Cassava flour, cage-free eggs and date syrup. In 2019, her fruitcake received the Specialty Food Association’s 2019 sofi™ Award, a top honor in the specialty foods industry. https://ilovedatelady.com
In Manitou, CO, they toss fruitcakes on Jan. 25
This will be the 24th year that residents and passers-by can take part in The Great Fruitcake Toss. Come from 1-3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020. Don’t worry if you didn’t get a fruitcake. You can rent one for a $1, and attendees are encouraged to bring a non-perishable food item for the local food bank.
The record is 1,420 feet, set in January 2007 by eight Boeing engineers who built a mock artillery piece, fueled by compressed air and pumped by an exercise bike. Participants must adhere to standards – two and four-pound fruitcake divisions, and cakes must contain glaceed fruits, flour and be edible.
Try your hand at Catch The Fruitcake. Or launch your cake at 75, 125 and 175-foot targets. The crowd judges the most creative launch, and there’s a People’s Choice award for showmanship – by costume, decorated devices, or slogans. It’s unknown how the tossed fruitcakes are retrieved and recycled.
If you like fruitcake, don’t despair. This year there will be a Fruitcake Bake-Off. Bakers must register, and bring organic, non-GMO, natural fruitcakes. Judges and samplers pick the Fruitcake King or Queen. https://manitousprings.org/events/fruitcake-toss/
Aren’t we all a little half-baked?
In 1994, Jimmy Buffett released his album, “Fruitcakes.” Musical blogger Herb Bowie, dissected what he calls Buffett’s masterpiece: “We’re all a little eccentric, all a little half-baked, and we’re all fruitcakes, of one sort or another.” https://hbowie.net
See if there’s someone you recognize from the album’s cover. Maybe you.
