fruitcake
American Heritage Dictionary:
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fruit·cake
(frūt'kāk') 
n.
n.
- A heavy spiced cake containing nuts and candied or dried fruits.
- Slang. A crazy or an eccentric person: "a fruitcake under the delusion that he was Saint Nicholas" (John Strahinich).
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fruitcake
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How is a fruitcake made?
Background
The fruitcake bears the brunt of many holiday jokes in forums as varied as the Sunday funny pages and boxes of greeting cards. One entrepreneur manufactures fruitcakes—and sells them for use as doorstops. Yet the fruitcake has historical associations with the Holy Land, and its internal bounty is said to represent the gifts of the Wise Men. Like many other fruit breads and cakes, it has been venerated since Medieval times when fruit in the wintertime was an extraordinary treat. Modern fruitcakes are based on traditional recipes that are cherished among families, but, thanks to mail-order catalogues and a wide variety of fruitcakes among manufacturers, new twists for this familiar friend abound.
History
History and lore mingle in the retelling of the fruitcake story. The ancient Egyptians made fruitcake for their departed loved ones to carry with them to the afterlife. The dense cake and preserved fruit were thought to withstand the journey, and the riches of the fruits and nuts communicated the wealth of the consumer and the family's esteem for their relative. The Middle East overflowed with the variety of dates, citrus fruit, and nuts that were virtually unknown in Northern Europe until the Crusades. Returning Crusaders brought fruit with them, but the trade that was initiated was frequently interrupted by war, and, of course, the fruit was highly perishable. These dilemmas were partially solved by drying or candying the fruit for travel, and, when the fruit reached Northern Europe, it was shared by mixing it in breads and cakes. Because the fruit came from the Holy Land, it was also revered and saved for feast days, particularly Christmas and Easter.
The Austrians reencountered the bounty of Middle Eastern fruit when the Turks lay siege to Vienna in the seventeenth century. In gratitude for having survived that face-off, the Viennese served German turban cake, or gugelhupf, with its filling of raisins, citron, lemon and orange peel, almonds, and spices on Christmas morning. Similarly, the Scandinavians bake fruit breads and cakes variously called julekage, julekakke, or julebrod at Christmas time; like fruitcake, these contain fruits, nuts, and exotic spices and are glazed. The German Christmas bread called stollen and the Italian holiday bread known as panettone are other close kin for the fruitcake. They are characterized by variations in the bread or cake base, choices among fruit and nuts (panettone, for example may be baked with pine nuts), and the optional addition of rum or brandy. Italian panettone is a Milanese tradition surrounded by legend. Supposedly, eggs and fruit were used to make bread for the poor only at holiday times. Panettone became associated with the unification of Italy during the uprisings of 1821 when the traditional raisins were replaced with red cherries and green citron to represent the Italian tricolor flag. Still other similar traditions are Russian Easter bread, known as kulich and topped with lemon icing, and Irish fruit bread, which is called barmbrack, and accompanies Halloween and All Saints Day festivities.
The English fruitcake or Christmas cake reached its heyday in Victorian times when, with the introduction of the Christmas tree and other festive customs, religious traditions exploded into colorful, season-long celebrations. Fruitcakes (and other fruit-bearing holiday treats like the plum pudding and Irish plum cake) were made well in advance of the holidays. The cakes were wrapped in cheesecloth that had been soaked in brandy; periodically, the cheese-cloth was resoaked and the cakes rewrapped to absorb the liquid. The day before Christmas, the cakes were unwrapped, coated with marzipan or almond paste, further coated with royal icing that dried and hardened, and then glazed with apricot glaze. These Christmas cakes demonstrated such abundance that the same kind of cake is used today in England as wedding cake, and it has the advantage of preserving well for anniversary celebrations.
Raw Materials
Fruitcake character is largely determined by the wealth of fruit and nuts it contains. These can include a whole range or be limited to selected fruit or nuts, depending on the recipe, taste, or market. Fruit can include lemon and orange peel, raisins, dates, currants, figs, apricots, cherries, citron (the preserved rind of the citron fruit, which is similar to a lemon), and pineapple. These fruits are all preserved, dried, candied, or glazed so that much of their natural moisture is removed, and they will keep longer. The cherries and pineapple in particular may also be colored with food coloring. Nuts include walnuts, pecans, almonds, and pine nuts; broken pieces are incorporated in the cake, but walnut or pecan halves may be used to decorate the outside. Most fruitcake bakers purchase fruit and nuts from specialty manufacturers or suppliers.
Spices are other key ingredients that harken back to the Middle Eastern heritage of the fruitcake. Cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg are most typical of fruitcakes. Because the blend of spices greatly influences the cake flavor, these are carefully guarded secrets. Liquids include eggs, molasses, other syrups, fruit juices, and liquors of which rum and brandy are the most popular. The cake itself is made of high-quality flour, salt, baking powder, brown sugar, and butter. Again, these ingredients are purchased directly from suppliers.
Design
The choice of fruit and nuts to be included is subject to availability and the taste of the baker. The spice blend for most manufacturers is carefully guarded, and the proportion of cake to fruit is also a design choice. Ideally, the cake is delicious by itself, but its molasses and brown sugar ingredients (not common to other cakes) are added to help the fruit stick together with the cake as a minimal matrix. Rum and brandy leave their flavor but no alcoholic content because the alcohol is driven off during baking. While these potent potables are flavorful, the choice of making fruitcake intoxicating rests with the consumer who can adjust the cake's moisture level by wrapping it in soaked cheesecloth. If the consumer chooses to do this, any favorite liquor flavor, such as wine, fruit juice, liqueurs, or the traditional brandy or rum can be used. The designer may also select the shape of the fruit-cake. Collin Street Bakery, the largest producer of fruitcake in the world, prefers a ring shape, while circular and loaf-shaped cakes are also manufactured.
The Manufacturing
Process
- In the bakery, the liquid and dry ingredients are mixed separately and then blended together. In large bowls, a generous proportion of fruit and nuts is mixed with the cake dough until the surfaces of the fruit are coated.
- The rich mixture with its sparkling cherries is scooped into baking pans lined with greased paper that prevents the sugary fruit from burning against the sides of the metal pans. The pans and their contents are weighed to produce uniform products, and the pans are placed on conveyor belts that carry them past a team of inspectors.
- The inspectors watch for excessive variations and arrange the nuts and cherries so they show to best advantage. The fruit and nuts will not move in the cake once they are in place, so the appearance of the cake before it is baked will be much the same as the finished product.
- The cake pans that have passed inspection are placed on large trays that are loaded into a 5 ft (1.5 m) tall industrial baking rack. The entire rack is rolled into a rotating convection oven for the baking process, which is also a well-guarded secret. Because this type of cake is dense rather than airy and because of the fruit and sugar contents, fruit cakes are baked at relatively low temperatures for a long time to drive off the moisture without singeing the fruit. The racks are wheeled out of the convection oven, and the cakes are left in their pans to cool.
- After the cakes are cooled, they must be wrapped and packaged quickly before they begin to reabsorb moisture from the air. The cakes are removed from their pans, and the paper lining is striped off the cakes. Some manufacturers decorate the finished surfaces with sugared nuts or extra fruit, and some apply a syrup glaze. Following any decorative steps, the fruitcakes are packaged, usually in an inner wrap of decorative cellophane that is seated on a lace doily and a piece of fruitcake-sized cardboard. This inner set of packing is placed in a box or ornamental tin and sealed. That container may also be sealed in an outer box for store display, mailing or shipment.
Quality Control
Quality control begins with the selection of ingredients including the most beautiful candied fruit that should be free of discolorations and tough pieces and should shine like the colors in a stained glass window. Spices and liquors are the other ingredients that give flavorful character to the fruitcake, and they must be fresh and true to their flavors with no sharp twangs or bitterness. During the mixing processes, the ingredients, mixtures, and machinery are monitored carefully. The fruitcake bakers take tremendous pride in their product and scrutinize its quality. The inspection team along the assembly line prior to baking performs the most detailed check while arranging the surficial nuts and fruit. The cakes are inspected again as they are packed, but, after the fruitcakes have been baked, they are virtually indestructible and will last years if kept in cool, dark storage.
The Future
Even in our age of cholesterol-consciousness and health concerns, the fruitcake has an upwardly trending future. If a diet is to be broken, it is most likely to fall by the wayside during the holidays. Fruitcakes may bear the brunt of many jokes, but they are still firmly implanted in our collective holiday traditions. Fruitcakes are also an adult and acquired taste, not only because of the liquors but because of the complex blend of spices and other flavors that usually appeal more to grownups. Collin Street Bakery makes 1.6 million fruitcakes per year and ships this product, totaling four million lb (approximately two million kg), to customers in all 50 states and 200 countries.
Several monasteries in the United States, including the Assumption Abbey in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri, the Abbey of Gethsemani in Trappist, Kentucky, and the Our Lady of Guadalupe Trappist Abbey in Carlton, Oregon, are recent entrants in the race to produce the best fruitcake. The 14 monks of Assumption Abbey create 23,000 fruit-cakes per holiday season to finance their less worldly vocations. Furthermore, fruit-cake baking doesn't require much conversation, so the monks can maintain their vows of silence while fully supplying customers by mail order and e-mail. Fruitcakes, therefore, may also help us maintain a connection with the religious origins of holidays in these commercial times.
Where to Learn More
Books
Bailey, Adrian, ed. Mrs. Bridges' Upstairs, Downstairs Cookery Book. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1974.
Cosman, Madeleine Pelner. Fabulous Feasts: Medieval Cookery and Ceremony. New York: George Braziller, 1976.
Field, Carol. The Italian Baker. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1985.
General Mills, Inc. Betty Crocker's International Cookbook. New York: Random House, 1980.
McGrath, Jean. Butte's Heritage Cookbook. Butte, MT: Butte-Silver Bow Bicentennial Commission, 1976.
Morris, Sally. British and Irish Cooking: Traditional dishes prepared in a modern way. New York: Garland Books, 1972.
Other
Abbey of Gethsemani. http://www.monks.org/abbey-pg.htm.
Collin Street Bakery. http://www.collinstreetbakery.com/.
Harry and David. http://www.harryanddavid.com/.
Southern Supreme Nutty Fruitcakes & Gourmet Confections. http:/lsosupreme.corn/.
Sunshine Hollow Bakery. http://www.sunshinehollow.com/.
[Article by: Gillian S. Holmes]
Barron's Food Lover's Companion:
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fruitcake
Traditional winter holiday cakes made with an assortment of candied fruit and fruit rind, nuts, spices and usually liquor or brandy. Fruitcakes can have a moderate amount of cake surrounding the chunky ingredients, or only enough to hold the fruits and nuts together. Dark fruitcakes are generally made with molasses or brown sugar and dark liquor such as bourbon. Dark-colored fruits and nuts, such as prunes, dates, raisins and walnuts, may also contribute to the blend. Light fruitcakes are generally made with granulated sugar or light corn syrup and light ingredients such as almonds, dried apricots, golden raisins, etc. Fruitcakes are baked slowly and, after cooling, usually covered in cheesecloth moistened with liquor or brandy and tightly wrapped in foil. Stored in this manner, they have tremendous staying power and, providing they are occasionally remoistened, can be kept for years.
Nutritional Values:
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The Nutritional Value for: fruitcake
| Description | Quantity | Energy (calories) |
Carbs (grams) |
Protein (grams) |
Cholesterol (milligrams) |
Weight (grams) |
Fat (grams) |
Saturated Fat (grams) |
| dark, from home recipe | 1 cake | 5185 | 783 | 74 | 640 | 1361 | 228 | 47.6 |
| dark, from home recipe | 1 piece | 165 | 25 | 2 | 20 | 43 | 7 | 1.5 |
Random House Word Menu:
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categories related to 'fruitcake'
- Cakes
- Sexuality or Gender
- Insanity - fruitcake: Slang. crazy or eccentric person; nut
See crossword solutions for the clue Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Fruit cake
For other uses, see Fruitcake (disambiguation).
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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2011) |
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This article contains weasel words: vague phrasing that often accompanies biased or unverifiable information. Such statements should be clarified or removed. (December 2011) |
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Fruit cake (or fruitcake) is a cake made with chopped candied fruit and/or dried fruit, nuts, and spices, and (optionally) soaked in spirits. A cake that simply has fruit in it as an ingredient can also be colloquially called a fruit cake. In the United Kingdom, certain rich versions may be iced and decorated. Fruit cakes are often served in celebration of weddings and Christmas.
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Contents
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History
The earliest recipe from ancient Rome lists pomegranate seeds, pine nuts, and raisins that were mixed into barley mash. In the Middle Ages, honey, spices, and preserved fruits were added.
Fruit cakes 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 fast. 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 North German Stollen fruit cakes.[1]
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 fruit cakes more affordable and popular.[2]
In various countries
Bahamas
In the Bahamas, not only is the fruit cake drenched with rum, but the ingredients are as well. All of the candied fruit, walnuts, and raisins are placed in an enclosed container and are soaked with the darkest variety of rum, anywhere from 2 weeks to 3 months in advance. The cake ingredients are mixed, and once the cake has finished baking, rum is poured onto it while it is still hot.
Canada
The fruit cake is commonly known as a Christmas Cake in Canada and eaten during the Christmas season. Rarely is it seen during other times of the year. The Canadian fruit cake is similar in style to the UK version, as it is in most Commonwealth countries. However, there is rarely icing on the cake and alcohol is not commonly put in Christmas cakes that are sold. The cakes also tend to be void of any decorations and are shaped like a small loaf of bread. Dark, moist and rich Christmas cakes are the most frequently consumed, with white Christmas cake rarely seen. 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 a gift generally exchanged between business associates and close friends/family.
France
In French, as in some other non-English speaking countries, it is simply called "Cake".
Germany
The Stollen, a traditional German fruit cake usually eaten during the Christmas season, is loaf-shaped and powdered with icing sugar on the outside. It is usually made with yeast, butter, water, flour, zest, raisins, and almonds. The most famous Stollen is the Dresdner Stollen,[3] sold at the local Christmas market.
Italy
Panforte is a chewy, dense Tuscan fruit cake dating back to 13th-century Siena. Panforte is strongly flavored with spices and baked in a shallow form. Panettone is a Milan fruitcake. Genoa's fruitcake, a lower, denser but still crumbly variety, is called Pandolce.
Romania
Cozonac is a fruit cake mostly made for every major holiday (Christmas, Easter, New Year).
Switzerland
Birnenbrot[4] is a dense sweet Swiss fruit cake with candied fruits and nuts.
Trinidad and Tobago
Fruit cake, also called black cake is a traditional part of the Christmas celebration. The cake incorporates a large quantity of raisins and rum and becomes a staple dinner item between the Christmas season and New Years'.
United Kingdom
In the UK, fruit cakes come in many varieties, from extremely light to rich and moist. The traditional Christmas cake is a round fruitcake covered in marzipan and then in white satin or royal icing (a hard white icing made with softly beaten egg whites). They are often further decorated with snow scenes, holly leaves, and berries (real or artificial), or tiny decorative robins or snowmen. In Yorkshire, it is often served accompanied with cheese. Fruit cakes in the United Kingdom often contain currants and glace cherries. One type of cake that originated in Scotland is the Dundee Cake. This is a fruit cake that is decorated with almonds, and which owes its name to Keiller's marmalade.
United States
Typical American fruit cakes are rich in fruit and nuts.
Mail-order fruit cakes in America began in 1913. Some well-known American bakers of fruit cake include Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana, Texas, and The Claxton Bakery in Claxton, Georgia. Both Collin Street and Claxton are southern companies with access to cheap nuts, for which the expression "nutty as a fruitcake" was derived in 1935.[2] Commercial fruit cakes are often sold from catalogs by charities as a fund raiser.
Most American mass-produced fruit cakes are alcohol-free, but traditional recipes are saturated with liqueurs or brandy and covered in powdered sugar, both of which prevent mold. Brandy- or wine-soaked linens can be used to store the fruit cakes, and some people feel that fruit cakes improve with age.
In the United States, the fruit cake has been a ridiculed dessert. Some blame the beginning of this trend with Tonight Show host Johnny Carson.[2] He would joke that there really is 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.
Since 1995, Manitou Springs, Colorado, has hosted the Great Fruitcake Toss on the first Saturday of every January. "We encourage the use of recycled fruitcakes," says Leslie Lewis of the Manitou Springs Chamber of Commerce. 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.[5]
December 27 is National Fruitcake Day and December is National Fruitcake Month (December is considered National Eggnog Month, as well.)[6]
Shelf life
If a fruit cake contains alcohol, it could remain edible for many years. For example, a fruit cake baked in 1878 is kept as an heirloom by a family in Tecumseh, Michigan.[7] In 2003 it was sampled by Jay Leno on the Tonight Show.[8] To lengthen the shelf life of a fruit cake, wrap the cake in alcohol soaked linen before storing. [9]
See also
References
- ^ Stollen history
- ^ a b c Robert Sietsema. "A Short History of Fruitcake", The Village Voice, November 20–26, 2002.
- ^ Meyers Lexikon: "Besonders bekannt ist der Dresdner Stollen" ("the Dresden Stollen is especially well-known")
- ^ Swiss recipes, Grandma´s Birnenbrot
- ^ Photos from the 2009 event: www.blueskiesbb.com/fruitcake-popup.html
- ^ "National Friut Cake Day". Punchbowl, Inc.. http://www.punchbowl.com/holidays/national-fruit-cake-day. Retrieved 13 December 2011.
- ^ Fruitcake is family heirloom http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20097708,00.html
- ^ Jay Leno eats 125 year old fruitcake http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1817&dat=20031224&id=0R0fAAAAIBAJ&sjid=p6cEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6655,2002670
- ^ Fruitcakes - Myths, Mysteries and Truths http://scottymacblog.com/2010/12/fruitcakes/
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Translations:
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Fruitcake
idioms:
- nutty as a fruitcake skør kugle
Nederlands (Dutch)
vruchtencake, idioot
Français (French)
n. - (Culin) gâteau/tarte aux fruits, (GB) fou, cinglé
idioms:
- nutty as a fruitcake complètement cinglé
Deutsch (German)
n. - engl. Rührkuchen
idioms:
- nutty as a fruitcake total verrückt
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (καθομ.) παλαβιάρης, βλαμμένος
idioms:
- nutty as a fruitcake θεόμουρλος
Italiano (Italian)
dolce di frutta, (US volg.) finocchio
idioms:
- nutty as a fruitcake matto da legare
Português (Portuguese)
n. - bolo (m) de frutas
idioms:
- nutty as a fruitcake pessoa (f) excêntrica (gír.)
Русский (Russian)
фруктовый торт, псих
idioms:
- nutty as a fruitcake псих, чудак
Español (Spanish)
n. - chiflado, excéntrico
idioms:
- nutty as a fruitcake persona loca, chalada, loco de remate
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - fruktkaka, blådåre
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
掺有干果的糕饼
idioms:
- nutty as a fruitcake 非常疯狂
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 摻有乾果的糕餅
idioms:
- nutty as a fruitcake 非常瘋狂
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) كعكه الفاكهه
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - עוגת פירות, משוגע, אדם מוזר
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American Heritage Dictionary
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Gale's How Products Are Made
How Products are Made. Copyright © 2002 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Barron's Food Lover's Companion
Food Lover's Companion. Copyright © 2001 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Random House Word Menu
© 2010 Write Brothers Inc. Word Menu is a registered trademark of the Estate of Stephen Glazier.
Write Brothers Inc.
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Wikipedia on Answers.com
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Fruit cake.
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