Home Today Is Every January Manitou Springs (CO) Hosts The Annual Fruitcake Toss (Video)

Every January Manitou Springs (CO) Hosts The Annual Fruitcake Toss (Video)

Across the United States, fruitcake lovers young and old, observe National Fruitcake Day each year on December 27.

Made with chopped candied or dried fruit, nuts and spices and sometimes soaked in “spirits,” fruitcake has been a holiday gift-giving tradition for many years.

 

  • Rome is believed to be the creator of fruitcake, and one of the earliest recipes known comes from ancient Rome listing pomegranate seeds, pine nuts and raisins that were mixed into barley mash.
  • Records indicate that in the Middle Ages, honey, spices, and preserved fruits were added. Recipes for fruitcake vary from country to country depending on available ingredients and tradition.
  • Sugar from the American Colonies along with the discovery that high concentrations of sugar could preserve fruits, created an excess of candied fruit hence making fruitcakes more affordable and much more popular starting in the 16th century.
  • Typically, American fruitcakes are rich in fruits and nuts.
  • In America, mail-order fruitcake began in 1913.
  • Commercial fruitcakes are often sold, from catalogs, by charities as a fundraising event.
  • In 1935, the expression “nutty as a fruitcake” was coined during the time Southern bakeries, Collin Street and Claxton, had access to cheap nuts.
  • Most mass-produced fruitcakes in America are alcohol-free.
  • Some traditional recipes include liqueurs or brandy and then complete the fruitcake by covering it with powdered sugar.
  • Brandy soaked linens have been used to store fruitcakes as some people believe that they improve with age.
  • The Egyptians thought so much of these cakes that they put them in tombs. They thought that fruitcakes would survive the long journey to the afterlife.
  • Even Crusaders knew that fruitcakes could withstand a long journey. Not only did these cakes withstand long journeys, but they were also full of nutritious items like dried fruit and nuts.
  • Fruitcakes were the wedding cake of choice in England.  Single female wedding guests would take a piece home and place it under their pillow in hopes of dreaming of the man they would marry.
  • Fruitcake is perfectly edible as long as there is no mold on it.
  • If your fruitcake dries out, soak it in alcohol or some other liquid and it will become as edible as it ever was.
  • In the early 18th century, fruit cake, then known as plum cake, was outlawed in Europe for being sinfully rich.
  • It was the custom in England for unmarried wedding guests to put a slice of the cake, traditionally a dark fruitcake, under their pillow at night so they will dream of the person they will marry.
  • In 2006, Americans mailed 2,952 pounds of fruit cake to soldiers stationed in Iraq
  • A pineapple fruitcake was taken on the Apollo 11 space mission.
  • Fruitcake can age 25 years and still be eaten, as long as it contains the proper preservatives and is stored in an airtight container.
  • Fruitcakes are like fine wine.  They get better with age.  Fresh fruitcake needs to sit and ripen for at least a month before it can be eaten and unlike most cake and bread, fruitcake only gets better with time.
  • One of the reasons fruitcakes were treasured throughout our history was because they were an efficient way to preserve food for long journeys and bitter winters.  The long shelf life of a fruitcake meant that cakes could be baked in the summer and fall and used to supplement food stores over the entire winter.
  • Meanwhile, two other locales have been vying for “Fruitcake Capital of the World.” In 2012, NPR ran a story about how the small town of Claxton, Georgia—home of two bakeries (Claxton Bakery and the Georgia Fruitcake Company) that each year yield more than 4 million pounds of fruitcake—calls itself the Fruitcake Capital of the World, despite the same claim made by Corsicana, Texas (home to the aforementioned Collin Street Bakery and Bob McNutt). The disputed claim hasn’t stopped Claxton from declaring itself the “Fruitcake Capital of the World” on its water tower.
  • Every year in January,  the Colorado town of Manitou Springs hosts the Great Fruitcake Toss. Competitors compete to see how far they can launch a fruit cake, and the event is to raise money for a local charity.  The 2019 contest will be held Jan. 29th.

Sources:

National Day Calendar

Foodimentary

Mobile- Cuisine

Fill Your Plate

Mental Floss

YouTube.com/Robert Berndt