Fruitcake: The Bleak Tradition

by Dipie
(Sydney, Australia)

The tradition of adding dried and candied fruit to the fruit cakes has its roots in the fact that around Christmas fresh fruit used to be hard to find in Europe and only dried or preserved fruit was available in the old times. But this bleak tradition continues to this date when fresh fruit is available all through the year. Thanks to the supermarkets! In fact in the southern hemisphere, fresh fruit is at its peak during Christmas. When you make fruit cake with fresh fruit, it comes out very moist and tastes much better. I think it's time people rethink the way they make their Christmas fruit cakes. This might improve the reputation of the "traditional" Christmas fruit cake.