Three Things You Might Not Know About Fruitcake

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3 Things You Might Not Know About Fruitcake

Fruitcake is a lot more popular than you might think. Fruitcake is usually considered to be a Christmas food in the United States but cultures around the world regularly prepare fruitcake as a dessert for weddings, holidays, birthdays, graduations and other celebrations. There are hundreds of different variations of fruitcake and traditional family recipes are still handed down from generation to generation in Europe and throughout North America. Fruitcake is a dessert that has a long and rich history that is celebrated all over the world. Here are three things that you probably didn't know about fruitcake:

Fruitcake is served for almost all winter celebrations, especially religious holidays, because in many cultures that have cold climates having fruit in the winter is a very special treat. Before the creation of refrigeration and preservatives food had to be eaten right away or it would spoil. So during the winter people didn't usually get to eat a lot of fruit unless they were very rich and could buy imported fruit. Fruitcake filled with candied fruits gave people the chance to have fruit out of season.
Fruitcake is commonly used as a dessert for religious holidays throughout Europe and North America because the fruits and nuts that are contained in fruitcake were originally brought back from the Middle East by the Crusaders. For Christians and Jews the Middle East is the Holy Land, so the fruits that came from the region were saved to be eaten during religious festivals and celebrations. Fruitcake is still served today for religious festivals and ceremonies like marriages. Many European brides have fruitcake as their wedding cake because of the tradition of serving fruitcake at special and religious events.
Modern fruitcake is based on a version of fruitcake created by the people of Austria from Middle Eastern fruits and a traditional type of German cake. In the 1600s the Turks tried to invade Austria. They ultimately failed but during their attempts they brought the spices, fruits and nuts that were a routine part of their diet to the region. Local people combined these treats with a version of German cake that had a citron filling and a dense texture and created the type of fruitcake that is most often served today. Most people don't realize how long fruitcake has been a part of human culture but fruitcake is the oldest and most commonly served type of sweet in the world.

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