Welcome to our series featuring Unique Holidays: December 2022: National Fruit Cake Month. This is one day I wish my mom was here. Before you ask why its because it’s National Fruitcake Month which she loved.
Every year for Christmas since I became a teenager I would buy my mom a Fruitcake and my dad a package of Thin Mints as well as Chocolate Covered Cherries for them to share. I hope there still able to have there favorite desserts in Heaven.
National Fruitcake Month
Did you know there is both National Fruitcake Month and also National Fruitcake Day which falls on December 27th? A day to celebrate every eccentric person you know. Nope, that’s not right. It’s a day for lovers of Fruitcake to rejoice in the delights of the world’s most misunderstood Fruit. A Fruitcake is a boozy, chewy, rich melody of dried Fruit, Nuts, and Sugar, saturated with your favorite Alcohol. Most commonly Brandy or Bourbon. Which produces a dense, sweet, textured treat generally served around the holidays. Here is a fun fact for you. Fruitcakes have been found in ancient Egyptian tombs, so you know that the tradition is steeped in history as well as Booze.
NATIONAL FRUITCAKE DAY ACTIVITIES
- The ingredients of Fruitcake vary widely. Host a party where each guest makes his or her own version of a Fruitcake! You can even hold a contest for the best tasting Fruitcake. The winner earns everlasting glory.
- Fruitcakes are a traditional gift. Mail order fruitcakes have been around since the early 1900s. Take a note from your ancestors and order a Fruitcake available through the mail to gift to your friends.
- You can keep the tradition alive by creating your own Fruitcake. If you don’t have a family recipe, adapt a recipe from a cookbook. All the ingredients can be purchased, but why not make it a family tradition to dry your own Fruit? Not only will your Fruitcake taste better, but your Fruitcake will be healthier and better for you. Toast fresh Nuts, use Honey instead of Sugar, and top-shelf Alcohol to make a real Fruitcake lover’s Fruitcake.
WHY PEOPLE LOVE NATIONAL FRUITCAKE DAY
- Fruitcakes are traditionally associated with the arrival of Winter, when heavier desserts or food in general are served. Fruitcakes popularity grew before refrigeration allowed an easy way to keep food fresh, so other means of preservation had to be devised. Pouring Alcohol over Fruitcakes until no more could be absorbed was one way to preserve Fruitcakes for months, because it was believed Fruitcakes got better with age.
- An early recipe from Rome lists Pomegranate Seeds, Pine Nuts, and Raisins as Fruitcake’s main ingredients, but any extra Fruit you have lying around is fair game for this all-encompassing dessert.
- Fruitcake is consumed in different forms around the world, and we mean all over. Fruitcake is served in America, the Bahamas, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Germany and Ireland, among other Countries.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
