Fruitcake isn’t just for jokes anymore.

The time-honored traditional American dessert has made a comeback in recent years, free of the square image that dogged it for many years. The reason for its fall from popularity? A sense of the modern times outgrowing such simple Americana as the dessert that first gained popularity during the hardscrabble days of the Great Depression. The idea was that America had outgrown fruitcake, that we’d become too sophisticated and too smart for such simple but healthy pleasure.

Nuts to that.

The truth is that in recent years America has gained a new appreciation for its simpler roots and happier times. What was old is new again, and that includes traditional American cooking and delicacies.

The History of the American Fruitcake

The fruitcake really became popular in the 1930s, when the nation struggled with some of its toughest economic hardships. At the time, fresh fruit was still something of a great luxury except for those living in the Deep South or West Coast, where most of the country’s fruit was grown and harvested. The fruitcake, which includes many different kinds of citrus fruits and other kinds of fruit, became a way to share and sustain the fresh fruit flavor over great distances, especially during the colder months of winter.

The fruitcake became famous not just for the fruit contained within its recipe, but also for its tangy blend of hazelnuts, almonds, walnuts, and other nuts that also contributed to its array of flavors. At one point the fruitcake was so well-known for its healthy dose of nuts that the phrase “nutty as a fruitcake” came to mean anyone who was more than a little eccentric. Unfortunately, the saying helped perpetuate an unfavorable light on the simple fruitcake, and helped move it out of the public’s appeal.

A Return to Popularity in the New Century

But, in time the fruitcake has risen again to the place of esteem it has belonged all along, as Americans come to put substance over style and common sense over fashion sense. Fruitcakes includes a whole array of important, life-giving fruits and nuts, all of which are packed with crucial daily dietary requirements. The modern fruitcake is made with only the freshest fruits and only the choicest selection of nuts, so the ingredients are among the best you can find anywhere.