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There are so many unique traditions at this time of year, it's hard to keep them all straight. Of course, nobody who bites into a dense, flavor-filled chunk of fruitcake is likely to forget the sensation or the occasion that prompted it. As for the origin of the tradition, that's a little harder to recall... First off, we searched on the obvious. Typing in "fruitcake history" led us to a nice set of results, one of which was titled "Et Tu, Fruitcake!" This information-rich page offered some insights about the dessert's beginnings, including its legendary ability to remain edible for weeks or months (or
years!). Perhaps the most intriguing fact we learned was: In England by the end of the 18th century there were laws restricting the use of plum cake (plum being the generic word for dried fruit at the time) to Christmas, Easter, weddings, christenings, and funerals. We followed up with a search on "plum cake law" and various alternatives, but to no avail. That left us back where we started -- our original search results. Finding no further light shed on the subject, we decided to visit Corsicana, Texas's Collin Street Bakery -- the original purveyors of mail-order fruitcakes. While the site goes into the bakery's 100-year history of producing tasty, fruit-laden confections, we couldn't find any
substantive links between Christmas and fruitcake. Oh well, we guess some traditions are just... traditional.
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