Why is fruitcake so expensive?

Answer 1

simply because it's labor-intensive for one, and the ingredients are not cheap, for another, and because it's popularly baked and eaten only around the Christmas holidays...and the memories that swell up at the mere whiff of it is PRICELESS !!

Answer 2

Fruitcake was first made in ancient cultures.

The reasons I always heard for why it was made included:

1. Bakers / women could use up fruits before they became rotten.
2. They could use up dried fruits before those became too old.
3. The recipe calls for use of alcohol, which serves to preserve the "cake" and the aging fruits. But the Roman Catholic Church forbade use of alcohol, but finally relented.
4. Once colonists in America made it with sugar, they also found the sugar helped preserve it.

The longest a fruitcake is known to still be somewhat edible is over 100 yrs.

It is made commercially in the UK.