Love it or hate it, fruitcake was designed to last
From panettone to Caribbean black cake, the holiday dessert is a staple in many cultures
Ah, fruitcake. A polarizing, yet enduring, staple of the holiday season.
Just a few years ago, scientists in Antarctica discovered a fruitcake that had survived for more than 100 years in the ice and cold, likely brought there by British explorer Robert Falcon Scott during the 1910-13 Terra Nova expedition.
And in Michigan, one family has been passing down a now-141-year-old fruitcake to their relatives, since the woman who baked it in 1878 died before she could serve it during the holidays.
Despite the dessert's longevity, not everyone is a fan of eating it.
Day 6 host Brent Bambury spoke with writer, consultant and Black Foodie founder Eden Hagos to find out what exactly makes a fruitcake, and whether it's more of an artifact than a food.
Here is part of their conversation.
Why is it that some people have such strong feelings about fruitcake? They either love it or they hate it.
I definitely think it's a texture thing. So if you've had the wrong fruitcake, then you've probably bit into something that's kind of mushy, but then also crunchy at the same time, because there's nuts and dried fruits inside. And then a lot of fruitcakes that you can buy in the stores are really dry as well. So when you have that combination, it can really turn people away.
So that's the wrong fruitcake, which obviously I've been eating my whole life. What is the right kind of fruitcake?
I mean, this is my personal opinion. But I definitely think that you've got to have some Caribbean black cake because, in that cake, they have all those dried fruits soaking in rum for months and months — sometimes years. And then they puree it, and then they add that to the cake batter. So it's really smooth, it's really flavourful, and that alcohol actually brings out the flavour, too, of the dried fruit.
So does the alcohol stay with the cake or does it dissipate over time?
No, it stays with it. So, you know, what actually ends up happening is a lot of families, once they're done baking the cake, is they add little pinholes into the cake to absorb the alcohol. And then they pour a little bit of rum each week to make it more intense.
And then there's the fruitcakes that I see in my neighborhood, which are the panettone cakes in the giant boxes. What makes the panettone cake so special?
The roots go way back to Rome. So there were different types of fruitcakes then called panforte. And this is something that the crusaders used on the go. It was kind of like their energy bar because … the dried fruit and the dried nuts were preserved in the way that they prepared it.
Now when you have panettone, it's almost like in between a cake and a bread. So it's really filling. It's really delicious if it's made the right way. It's not dry.
So this is a dessert that crosses across cultures right? Italians, Ethiopian, Scots, Jamaicans. And I understand you once held a fruitcake competition event.
Yeah, I did. So we got fruitcakes, black cakes from Guyana, from Jamaica, from Trini chefs here in the city, and it was really delicious. I couldn't really choose — like, they were all so good.
But did somebody win?
Yeah, I think it was Trinidad that won. But in my books, they were all winners. It was all really delicious.
What about a 140-year-old fruitcake? Would you eat that?
[Laughing] I mean, no. I wouldn't. I don't think so.
So fruitcake is pretty indestructible. It seems to be able to survive 140 years after being baked. Is it simply because of the booze in it? Is that the thing that makes it endure?
Yeah, that's what preserves the dried fruits and nuts. So I was doing a little digging into like, the roots of fruitcake. And then in the English context, they didn't have ovens.
So they would actually prepare the cake … in a pot. So they needed to be able to preserve that fruit, so they would wrap it in a cloth with wine or some sort of alcohol. So that's what kept it.