The Blaine County Journal News-Opinion - We've Got The County Covered

Reporter's note: In case you missed it, National Fruitcake Day was celebrated, as usual, just a few days ago on December 27. National Fruit Cake Day got me thinking: it's probably been 25 years since I had fruitcake at Christmas. For about the first 25 years my wife and I have been married the company my father-in-law worked for would ship him a fruitcake, in a metal tin, every Christmas. He would put it under the Christmas tree. When my wife and I would arrive for Christmas, my mother-in-law and I would have fruitcake. We were the only two of the family who would eat it.

Years ago fruitcake got associated with Christmas in the United States. It became the butt of a lot of holiday jokes, like Johnny Carson's often quoted belief, "There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other."

I first encountered Southerners' regional craving for fruitcake when my wife and lived in Georgia. In fact, that's the first time I ever heard of the 'world-famous Claxton Fruit Cake.' I decided to learn a bit more about the much maligned fruitcake. Here's some of what I discovered.

Fruitcake has a muddled history

Some fruitcake commentators (no pun intended) believe the ancient Egyptians put a variation of the fruitcake in the Pharaoh's tombs to provide sustenance for the trip to the next world. Later, and there is some historical evidence of this, the Romans created a donut-shaped version that one writer described as a 'rustic energy bar.' Travelers carried the portable snack made of pomegranate seeds, pine nuts and barley mash. During the Middle Ages preserved fruit, honey and spices were added to the Roman 'cake' and it gained popularity.

By the 16th century in Europe dried fruit was more common, bread was becoming a staple and cheaper raw materials allowed sugar, nuts and candied fruits to be added to fruitcake. Each European region had its own variety of bread, the basis for fruitcake. In the Caribbean a booze-soaked fruitcake called black cake was a distant cousin to plum pudding popular in England. Still, in the 18th and 19th centuries fruitcake was not cheap and was typically only enjoyed regularly by the wealthy or on special occasions by the less affluent.

Dense, spirit-drenched cakes were part of weddings, christenings and birthdays from the early 1700's in England to modern times. The connection between Christmas and fruitcake might have begun in the late 1700's in England when nobles would give a slice of plum cake to poor holiday carolers.

Fruitcakes became popular in the U.S. during the Revolutionary War. By the late 1800's the cakes were sold in decorative tins, still a popular way to ship and display them today. Many early neighborhood bakeries were started and operated by European immigrants who brought their version of the fruitcake with them to their new business in a new country. By 1900 at least one bakery in Texas was selling fruitcakes by mail-order.

As local bakeries disappeared, other bakeries, particularly a few in the South, began to focus their entire business on selling fruitcakes by mail order. A few of these early mail-order bakeries connected with groups doing fundraisers and fruitcakes became a popular item sold to businesses and individuals to give as holiday gifts to customers, friends or family while helping a worthy cause.

Claxton, Georgia: Home of the Claxton Fruit Cake

There are currently several large bakeries that specialize in fruitcakes, mainly selling them through the mail. Not all are in the South, but two of the larger companies, that together sell about two million fruitcakes each Christmas season, are in Claxton (population 2200+) about an hour's drive due west of Savannah, Georgia. The Claxton Bakery and the Georgia Fruitcake Company produce an estimated four million pounds of fruitcakes, a sizeable part of the $100 million per year fruitcake business in the U.S.

The Claxton Bakery is a classic example of how the current bakeries started and survived. Savino Tos was an Italian baker who immigrated to New York City in the 1900's. After a few years in the city, he longed for a slower pace of life and accepted a job with an ice cream company in Macon, Georgia. He liked south Georgia and opened his own bakery and ice cream shop in Claxton. He eventually sold the business to one of his employees, Albert Parker.

By the end of World War II Parker saw that packaged baked goods were available from grocery stores to gas stations and concluded the neighborhood bakery would soon be extinct. He hit on the idea of focusing on only one product, fruitcakes. The Claxton Bakery began selling fruitcakes by mail and whipped up 45,000 pounds of cakes their first season.

Soon a civic group from Florida approached the company about selling the cakes for a fundraiser. That idea caught on as other charitable groups began selling the Claxton Fruit Cakes. The company is now run by Albert Parker's four adult children and family members. About 100 seasonal employees join the bakery from mid-August through December during the major baking season.

So, what to do with a fruitcake?

An independent research group did a survey to answer the age old question: "Do people really eat fruitcake?" One-third of the people surveyed admitted to eating fruitcake. Interestingly, forty percent of people questioned in the South not only ate fruitcake but said they enjoyed it. Southerners taste for fruitcake may explain why so many of the major bakeries that produce fruitcakes are in Georgia and Texas.

With much of the fruitcake's history connected to Europe, it's not surprising that folks in Australia probably consume more fruitcakes that any other people. They not only enjoy the cake for the holidays, they eat it year round. Fruitcake, in varied forms, is popular in every European country and the areas those countries colonized.

Fruitcakes do have a couple of other things going for them. The cooks at Claxton Bakery say, "our cakes have a shelf-life of approximately six months. For extended keeping, we advise placing the cakes in a refrigerator. Our fruit cake may also be frozen." Which leads to an interesting survey finding, fruitcakes might be the most 're-gifted' item from the holidays with a whopping 38% of respondents saying they give away a fruitcake as soon as they receive it. A writer specializing in regifting etiquette notes you still should check the 'use by date' just to be sure the fruitcake is not totally beyond it's prime.

Then, there's National Fruitcake Toss Day on January 3

With the shaky relationship that most of us have with fruitcakes, it should be no surprise that someone came up with a national day that allows people to openly dispose of an unwanted fruitcake-by tossing it. While the origin of National Fruitcake Day is unclear, the national toss day began with a mass fruitcake toss in Manitou Springs, Colorado (sits at the base of Pikes Peak) on January 3, 1996. The holiday is observed with contests to see who can toss a cake the furthest, with accompanying bragging rights to the winner. There's even a place on social media where you can post about your toss experience (#FruitcakeTossDay).

Well, general reader, now you know something about the origins of and, in some cases, the endings of many fruitcakes. Less than a third are eaten, about 40% are re-gifted and the rest are tossed in some form or fashion. Next time you encounter a fruitcake I hope you'll be a bit more appreciative of the lowly, holiday dessert and its glorious history.