A Holiday Favorite with a Rich History

The holiday season is a time for family, friends, and fruitcake, packed with dried fruits, nuts, warm spices, and a touch of spirits. December even celebrates this holiday dessert with National Fruitcake Month and National Fruitcake Day on December 27th.

This culinary confection owes its famous longevity and trademark sweetness to real sugar, a key ingredient in this time-honored American tradition. Fruitcake has also served as the world’s first energy bar, is part of an international $100 million business, and has even been to outer space.

Energy Bar Origins: From Ancient Rome to North America

Fruitcake’s origins can be traced to the ancient Romans. They created a calorie-rich bread consisting of seeds, nuts, raisins, barley mash, and wine. This “energy bar” known as satura fortified soldiers through long campaigns.

As dried fruits became more widely available, satura made its way into homes as a special occasion dessert. By the Middle Ages, fruitcakes saw the addition of honey, spices, and preserved fruits.

Fruitcake arrived in North America with English colonists in the seventeenth century. Settlers preserved their summer fruit harvest by crystallizing it in sugar syrup. This enabled them to use summer fruit in wintertime confections, likely earning fruitcake a place on holiday tables.

Famous Fans and Holiday Traditions

For centuries, fruitcake has been a staple of Christmas festivities, celebrated for its aromatic spices. Even First Lady Martha Washington and poet Emily Dickinson baked Christmas fruitcakes for friends and family.

In 1913, the introduction of parcel post delivery made it possible to mail fruitcakes. This made the dessert synonymous with holiday gift-giving. Real sugar played a key role, acting as a natural preservative and giving fruitcake its signature long-lasting freshness and shelf life.

When it comes to fruitcake, part of the fun is that everyone has an opinion. Whether you love it or love to hate it, no holiday season would be complete without a historic slice of this iconic dessert. 

About the Author

Laura Rutherford graduated from the University of North Dakota in 2004 with a degree in Political Science. She is a shareholder in American Crystal Sugar Company and a member of the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association (RRVSGA), the World Association of Beet and Cane Growers (WABCG), and the American Society of Sugarbeet Technologists. She is on the Board of Directors of the Sugar Industry Biotechnology Council and has published articles for the WABCG, the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association newsletter, and the British Sugarbeet Review magazine in Cambs, United Kingdom.