The Traditional Christmas Fruitcake – Western-Style

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I don’t know about you, but when I think of fruitcake, I think of the currant version, with almost sickly-sweet candies instead of real fruit, soaked in enough sugar to make a person vibrate out of existence if they eat a slice.

So, when I was writing a scene for an upcoming book, A Sugar Plum Christmas, and I needed a good, honest-to-goodness pioneer sweet…fruitcake really didn’t top my list. Does it top anyone’s? I was skeptical until I started watching videos on how these things were made.

traditional fruitcake

Enter the Way-Back machine…

Firstly, historians aren’t wholly certain how far back fruitcakes go (is that really a surprise?). They know cakes like these were used as rations for the Roman Army, right around 27 BC. For all we know, those are still in existence. I kid…sort of.

Even then, the Romans knew that soaking the fruit, and the cake when it was complete, in alcohol, would make it safe for eating much longer than other breads. Plus, it’s calorie dense. I’ll skip the joke where I say it’s pretty dense in other ways…that’s just too easy.

From the Roman Empire to a Rancher’s Table

Well, like the Roman Empire, the Old West didn’t have many options for keeping food, especially sweets that weren’t hard candy, from spoiling. Age-old methods are tried and true and fruitcakes became the dessert of choice for Victorian homes during Christmas.

The cake was often made three months ahead of time, using the berries and fruits collected from the year before to make room for ones just collected. They would be soaked in whatever alcohol was readily available. Despite the feeling about alcohol now, feelings were different then, even children occasionally drank and women often used alcohol for homemade tinctures, so the ingredients were often right on hand.

fruitcake ingredients

Wherefore Art Thou, Orange

With the advent of the Transcontinental Railway in the 1880s, the one ingredient that might have been hard to come by, suddenly wasn’t. Oranges. The recipe calls for the peel of one orange and I can imagine that, prior to the availability caused by the railroad, that made the fruitcake taste much differently. Perhaps they found a way to dry and save the peels when they were more readily available during the summer months. I couldn’t find any site to confirm or deny that.

What’s interesting to me is that orange peel is one of the few items in a fruitcake recipe that doesn’t change. The spices seem to vary, the amount of flour fluxuates, what type of alcohol doesn’t matter, the types of fruits and nuts are loosey-goosey. But the orange peel is a staple.

Recipe Time

My mother-in-law has a recipe for fruitcake from her mother and she and her sisters have not shared it yet, but they do get together annually (barring weather or the illness that shall not be named) to make one or three. I do not have that recipe, but I hear it’s pretty good. The cake is usually gone by the time I hear about it. However, here is a fabulous recipe, that I might even try:
Cite: The Old Farmer’s Almanac

INGREDIENTS

  • 4-5 pounds fruit and nuts:
  • 1 pound dark raisins
  • 1 pound white raisins
  • 1/2 pound currants
  • 1/2 pound candied cherries
  • 1/2 pound candied pineapple
  • 1/4 pound candied citron
  • 2 ounces candied orange peel
  • 2 ounces candied lemon peel
  • 1/4 pound blanched whole almonds
  • 1/4 pound whole pecans
  • 1/2 cup Madeira
  • 1/2 cup dark rum
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon each: cinnamon, cloves, mace, and allspice
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 5 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1 teaspoon almond extract

 

INSTRUCTIONS

Put the raisins and currants in a large bowl, add the Madeira and the rum and let stand, covered, overnight. Then add the candied fruits and mix well. Sift the spices and soda with 1-½ cups of the flour, combine the remaining flour with the nuts. Add all to the fruits, mixing lightly.

In another large bowl, beat the butter until light and cream in the sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and almond extract. Add the fruit and nut mixture to the batter and stir well. Turn the batter into a well greased tube or spring mold pan. A 10-inch pan will do for this 5-½ pound cake, or two smaller cakes may be made. Bake the large cake in an oven preheated to 275 degrees F for 3-½ to 4 hours, or until a cake tester inserted near the center of the cake comes out dry. The smaller cakes will take half the time.

Let the cake stand in the pan on a wire rack for half an hour, run a knife around the pan, if a spring mold, loosen it and remove the cake gently to a piece of heavy aluminum foil large enough to enclose it completely. Fold the closing double to seal the cake completely. Once or twice before Christmas, open the foil and pour a little additional rum or wine on the cake.

When ready to use, decorate the top of the cake with a wreath of pecans and maraschino cherries and thin slices of candied fruit.

Author | Website |  + posts

Where western meets happily ever after.

Kari writes swoony heroes and places that become characters with detail and heart.

Her favorite place to write about is the place her heart lives, (even if she doesn't) South Dakota.

Kari loves reading, listening to contemporary Christian music, singing when no one's listening, and curling up near the wood stove when winter hits. She makes her home in central Minnesota, land of frigid toes and mosquitoes the size of compact cars, with her husband of over twenty years. They have two daughters, two sons, one cat, and one hungry wood stove.

33 thoughts on “The Traditional Christmas Fruitcake – Western-Style”

  1. Wow! What a great lesson in fruitcake history. I imagine it’s delish if homemade and correctly done. The ones you buy in stores are horrid, but I bet the birds would love them during the cold winter months.
    I hope you get your MIL’s recipe someday, it would be a great recipe to pass down your family’s tree.

    • I commend you for trying it. I’ve looked down my nose at it from afar, but after watching all these videos and seeing what a real fruitcake is supposed to look like…I’m tempted to make one, just to try it.

    • I think fruitcake has had a bad reputation for ages (there are articles online that say that the week of New Years is called “Fruitcake Week” because all the unconsumed fruitcakes would be donated to the foundling homes. I think it’s a case of people either really liking it, or really not liking it. I joke, but I shouldn’t because I’ve never tried it personally.

  4. Hi Kari … thank you for the history lesson regarding fruit cake. It seems like the recipe goes on and on! Ha! I’ve yet to taste a fruit cake that strikes me as delicious. But, it inspires me to bake an apple cake today. As a fellow Minnesotan, we’ve got our wood stove burning, the mosquitoes (which weren’t bad this year here) are gone, the bears are hibernating, and the deer and birds still long to be fed. Maybe they would enjoy fruit cake!?! I’m being silly. Have a great day Kari. Thank you for the interesting blog.

    • Kathy, I apologize, I replied to your comment this morning and the internet goblins ate it. Apple cake sounds absolutely fantastic and makes me want to bake. We didn’t have many mosquitoes this year either, but the flies were horrible this fall. I live too far south for bear but the deer have been wonderful this year. I was hoping they would go for my pumpkin seeds, but no such luck. I guess I’ll have a pumpkin patch out by my deer feeder!

  5. Whoa, Kari! This cake takes a ton of fruit! I was surprised all the ingredients would fit in one 10-inch cake pan. One wouldn’t think so . . .

    I think I’d really like fruitcake if I found the perfect recipe. My mother was a wonderful cook and baker, and we had our traditional dishes over the holidays, but I don’t think she ever made a fruitcake.

    Thanks for sharing, and congrats on your upcoming book!

    • Thanks Pam! I thought the same thing. A fruitcake is like a mystery, how in the world does it all fit?? But I think I want to try one now…maybe not this year though. The historian in me wants to make it the traditional way and take three months. I’ll either love it or get sick LOL

  6. I have never liked a fruit cake but my neighbor me some kind of friendship cake last year at Christmas that she had been adding to for a while and it was really good. It had a lot of fruit in it.

    • I’ve heard of friendship cakes and friendship breads. I “believe” those came from the Amish (though don’t quote me). And it makes a nice, sweet bread.

  7. I think the raisins and the rum are why I don’t like fruit cake. I don’t like the strong tastes and smells of either one.

    • I’m not a big fan of raisins either (and I can’t drink alcohol because of allergies) but I think I’d try this, and you can substitute any type of fruit you don’t like for ones that you do (they did in the past) so you could use dried apples or other fruit. There are even recipes online that done use alcohol at all. It was just fun to look at all the options as I was researching.

    • I can understand that. There has never been a food in creation that pleased everyone and this one seems to have many people who don’t like it (I might be one of them, I’ve just never tried it).

  9. this is an interesting post. thanks. no I have never tried fruit cake. my grandmother made it once and after seeing the faces on my three brothers (one wanted to spit it out, but was good and swallowed it whole) these were boys that ate anything literally. so I didnt try it. I have never heard anything good about fruit cake, except in a book.

      • It was a great family memory. None of us spoke it aloud while grandma was alive. None of us wanted to hurt her feelings. She was always so much about “family” We all loved that woman, even still.

  10. I would have to ask the question, “How many people really eat Christmas Fruit Cake”. Most people I know don’t eat it. There are a few. When we would get one given to us, my mom would make a custard sauce if we had any left over and we would eat it that way. Kind of like an Christmas pudding.

    • Oh, Christmas pudding sounds good! In answer to your question, I think there are A LOT of people who don’t like it. In my research, I also came across a fun holiday in a small town in Colorado that literally launches uneaten fruitcakes and gives out prizes for distance…

  11. Oh, my goodness, if you had ever had my mama’s beautiful fruitcake, you would be a lover of fruitcake. But, usually one or two slices were plenty for a few days. There was absolutely no liquor in her cakes. It was white, with all of the beautiful colors of all the fruit shining our like a stain glassed window.

  12. Hi, wow, this sounds so very interesting, I learned alot of facts about fruit cake, Thank you. I really like fruit cakes, just like everything else some are better than other ones, but I have really had some good ones. Thank you for sharing the recipe. Have a great week and stay safe.

  13. I have made an applesauce fruitcake for years. After reading this “fruitcake history” I’m not sure mine is a true “fruitcake”. The recipe I use heats the applesauce, sugar and shortening or lard together. After it cools some, it is poured over the candied fruit, raisins, and walnuts that have been mixed with the dry ingredients. It is baked in an assortment of 1and 2 pound coffee cans. Once it is cooled the cakes are wrapped in cheese cloth soaked in brandy and wrapped again with plastic wrap before being put back in the cleaned cans. We have tried using the traditional rum but didn’t like it. I do store it in the refrigerator and it really does last a year, or more, with the alcohol wrap. Usually it is gone long before that.

    • My mother in law gets together with one of her sisters and makes them. I’ve heard they have a great time. Baking is so much more enjoyable when you love serving what you’re making.

  15. I wish family members were more willing to share their recipes sooner than later or at least let us help in the making so we have a good idea how to do it. My uncle made a fruit cake that was pretty good. Even though I have all his and my aunts things, I haven’t yet found the recipe. Hopefully I will find it once I finish going through all their things. The recipe you gave us above sounds pretty good. I will try to make it this year. I know the poor fruit cake gets no respect, but I like it. A friend shared a recipe for fruitcake cookies which is close the cake, minus the alcohol. It is a great recipe for cookie exchanges because it makes about 10 dozen. Somehow the cookie is more “acceptable” than the cake.
    Thanks for the information and the recipe. Have a great Fall.

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