Today Special : National Fruitcake Day
National Fruitcake Day is December 27, a day to celebrate every eccentric person you know. Wait! 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 amalgam of dried fruit, nuts, and sugar, saturated with your favorite alcohol, most commonly brandy or bourbon. That produces a dense, sweet, and textured treat generally served around the holidays. Fruitcakes have been found in ancient Egyptian tombs, so you know that the tradition is steeped in history as well as booze.
Are you “nutty as a fruitcake?” Find out in our fun-filled page of fruitcake trivia fcelebrating National Fruitcake Day.
NATIONAL FRUITCAKE DAY ACTIVITIES
- Have a fruitcake party : Since the ingredients of fruitcake vary widely, have a party where each guest makes his or her own version of the treat! You can even hold a contest for the best version—winner earns everlasting glory.
- Give the gift of fruitcakes : Fruitcakes are a traditional gift, and mailorder fruitcakes have been around since the early 1900s. So take a note from your ancestors and order a tasty, quality fruitcake available through the mail to gift to your friends.
- Make your own fruitcake : You can keep the tradition alive by creating your own fruitcake. If you don’t have a family recipe, adapt a recipe from a popular 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 it will be healthier and better for you. Toast some fresh nuts, use honey instead of sugar, and use top-shelf booze to make a real fruitcake lover’s fruitcake.
WHY WE LOVE NATIONAL FRUITCAKE DAY
- Christmas is right around the corner : Fruitcakes are traditionally associated with the arrival of winter, when heavier desserts (and food in general) are served. Their popularity grew before refrigeration allowed an easy way to keep food fresh, so other means of preservation had to be devised. Pouring alcohol over them until no more could be absorbed was one way to preserve them for months, because it was believed they got better with age.
- You can use any ingredients to make them : 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.
- It’s international : Fruitcake is consumed in different forms around the world, and we mean all over. It’s served in America, the Bahamas, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Germany and Ireland, among other places.
