The winter holiday season is one when food, particularly baked goods, take center stage. One traditionally popular food of the season is Christmas fruit cakes. Gifted and often re-gifted, these flavorful cakes are an old tradition that has stood the test of time.
Where Do Fruit Cakes Come From?
Common use of the fruitcake began with the Romans. Fruitcakes were popular because they traveled well and didn’t spoil easily. The cakes were great to bring on long journeys, so soldiers took them when they went off to war. People would make them and save them from year to year to eat in celebration of a good harvest. The Christmas fruit cakes tradition in America likely evolved from eating the cakes at harvest time around the holiday season.
Modern Christmas Fruit Cakes
Modern Christmas fruit cakes have changed a lot from the dry, hard loaves of the past. Some fruit cakes resembled little bricks with green and red candied fruit inside. Often acting as a punchline of many jokes, people often give them as gifts, and if they don’t want them, they gift them to someone else. What many may fail to realize is that the cakes are actually quite delicious if given a chance.
The cakes today are made with nuts, dried fruits, alcohol, and sugar. They are nice, heartwarming, and nostalgic hostess gifts for holiday parties and gatherings. An apple cinnamon nut cake would be a welcome addition for dessert at just about any party. Hand decorated cakes full of colorful fruit will fit in nicely with holiday decor.
When thinking of all of the wonderful nuts and dried fruit choice combinations available to put into fruit cake, the possibilities are endless. Pineapple and macadamia nut or apple cinnamon both sound delicious. Get creative and give Christmas fruit cakes your friends and family will love.
