A Short History of Fruitcake

Village Voice ^ | 11-2002 | Robert Sietsema

[Revolting cat!]

A Short History of Fruitcake

Haven't we had enough posts on gayness? What's next, a history of nuts?

[dixiechick2000]

Is Corsicana close to Hillsboro?

[DallasMike]

Is Corsicana close to Hillsboro?

Head down I-45 from Dallas towards Houston. It's about an hour's drive and there are signs that will direct you to the bakery. Put me down as pro-Collin Street Bakery Fruitcake.

[Free State Four]

Oh, you guys are just being elitist anti-fruitcake snobs. I LOVE fruitcake. The thicker, chewier and fruitier and more full of nuts the better.

One of the best "Christmas" movies around is the adaptation of Truman Capote's "Thanksgiving Memory". (I'm pretty sure that is the title of the short story and I think it is the title of the movie.) It is a wonderful story of the young Truman and his crazy-as-a-loon-Auntie (played, I think, by Geraldine Page) who make fruitcakes and send them to different people that have impressed them during the past year.

The trip to HA HA Johnson's to buy the whiskey to make the cakes is priceless!

[John Jamieson]

Hillsboro is about 40-50 miles west. Waco the home of Dr. Pepper is south of that, and the Texas White House is a little more west of Waco. Lots of stuff with a few hundred miles. Nice places.

[Hank Kerchief]

Haven't had it in many years, but put me down as pro-fruitcake. Although I would like to know what the green fruit in there is.

The fruit is citron, from: a thorny evergreen shrub or small tree (Citrus medica) native to India and widely cultivated for its large lemonlike fruits that have a thick warty rind; the fruit of this plant is candied and used in confections and fruitcakes.

My mother used to make fruitcakes that were heartily eaten by everyone. They were very moist, spicy, and fruity, and there was nothing better with a hot cup of coffee.

Hank

[sweetliberty]

Thanks for the ping Nully, but you know I always hated the fruit cake tosses. I am one of those people that happens to love fruitcake...if it is good fruitcake and my grandma made the best I ever ate! My ex-mother in law made a pretty decent one too.

[kitkat]

My mother was British. Each year she made fruitcake as gifts for all her children. I tried passing off slices of it to unwary Christmas visitors. They refused it to a man.
I didn't have the heart to hurt my mother's feelings, so each Christmas I put the cake in the back of the refrigerator, and threw out the still edible, well wine and liquored one one from the year before.

YECHHHHHHHHHH!

I STILL feel guilty.

[discostu]

I'm well known in my circle for being a sweets junkie. Sugar, corn syrup, candy, chocolates, if it'll make you fat I'll take two. All that being said fruitcake is one of the most disgusting things on the planet and second only to carolers for annoying holiday traditions, if I were king making fruitcake would be considered high treason.

[kitkat]

***(Would this have happened had he stayed home and stuck to his Kentucky
40 proof fruitcake? )***

Somehow, I doubt that Merton ever made fruitcakes in the monestary. I mean...I just can't see a Merton poem that says:

Sweet brother, if I cannot sleep
My eyes will be coins to buy some citron

[John Jamieson]

Oh, and don't miss my sister staring in the Christmas show at the Granbury Opera house.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

"His Abbot exempted him from certain rules of the abbey... He was encouraged to continue his writings, for example. He may have made fruitcake. (Back on subject Fruitcake is pretty ok if the proof is high enough and it doesnt have too many nuts ....Plum Pudding with brandy hard sauce is better. Mincemeat pie (on occasional holidays) and homemade carrot cake are good. )

[speedy]

Thanks for the info, Hank. Now I'm starting to get a yearning for a big thick slice right about now.

[dixiechick2000]

Thanks to you both. My in-laws live in Hillsboro, and I thought I recognized Corsicana as being close. I think I've been through there, but I don't pay much attention unless I'm driving.;o)

"Oh, and don't miss my sister staring in the Christmas show at the Granbury Opera house."

I wish I could see that, but I live in Oregon. Tell her to "break a leg"!

[dixiechick2000]

Oh, and maybe the next time we're in Texas, I can talk all of our folks into going to Corsicana to taste test that fruit cake.

Is it close to the Dinosaur park?

[John Jamieson]

Pretty close. Dinosaur Valley State Park is near Glen Rose, south of Granbury (which is 20 miles south of Ft. worth), maybe 40 miles west of Corsicana.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I don't like cake in my fruitcake. I like the really dense kind with the big square green things in it.

I gotta sweet tooth...can ya tell?

[dixiechick2000]

Thank you! Now I have a pretty good idea where it is.

[Husker24]

I dont believe the defence establishment has come up with a bunker buster that can blast through a 1 foot wall of fruit cake yet.

[boris]

I love fruitcake. Alas, I am not "supposed" to eat it due to diabetes.

Sigh.