Fruitcake is a heavy cake made of dried or candied fruits and nuts that are soaked in brandy or rum, often used in the celebration of weddings and Christmas. The earliest recipe from ancient Rome lists pomegranate seeds, pine nuts, and raisins that were mixed into barley mash. In the middle ages, honey, spices, and preserved fruits were added and the name fruitcake was first used. Inexpensive sugar from the American colonies with high concentrations of sugar could preserve fruits creating an excess of candied fruit. The fruitcake was the way to use them.

In the 18th century, Europeans were baking fruitcakes using nuts from the harvest for good luck in the following year. The cake was saved and eaten before the next harvest. Fruitcakes proliferated until a law in Europe restricted them to Christmas, weddings, and a few other holidays. Even so, the fruitcake remained popular at Victorian teas in England throughout the 19th century. Modern fruitcakes are butter cakes, with just enough dough to bind the fruit. The cakes are moistened with liqueurs or brandy, and covered in powdered sugar, both of which prevent mold. Brandy or wine-soaked linens are used to store the fruitcakes. Many people feel fruitcakes improve with age. Some cakes have been eaten 25 years after baking.

The fruitcake has become one of the most ridiculed desserts and the butt of many jokes, Former Tonight Show host Johnny Carson joked that there really is only one fruitcake in the world. It is passed from family to family

Today fruitcakes are filled with chopped dried apricots, dates, pears, raisins and currants. Candied fruits can be used although they generally will cost a bit more and are found at specialty stores. If you are going to use these ingredients, buy the best quality you can find. Use oiled scissors to cut these fruits because of the high sugar content. The fruits can be soaked in rum or brandy to add additional moisture and flavor. When baking fruitcakes, use light shiny pans instead of glass or dark metal to slow the browning process during the long, slow cooking time.

To store fruitcake, wrap them in plastic wrap or liquor soaked linens since the liquor and high sugar content tend to eat through aluminum foil.