Why are fruitcakes a holiday tradition?
Modern fruitcake was born with an influx of cheap sugar that arrived in Europe from the Colonies in the 1500s, says Robert Sietsema. Some one discovered that fruit could be preserved by soaking it in successively greater concentrations of sugar, Not only could native plums and cherries be conserved, but heretofore unavailable fruits were soon being imported in candied form from other parts of the world. Having so much sugar-laced fruit engendered the need to dispose of it in some way — thus the fruitcake. Suddenly they were everywhere. Their ubiquitous nature spawned an 18th-century law in England restricting the consumption of fruitcake — or plum cake, as it was called — to Christmas, Easter, weddings, christenings and funerals. Eventually the other occasions fell by the wayside, leaving Christmas as the lone holiday with a link to the fruity cake. Another theory: Well-heeled Englishmen would give slices of fruitcake to poor women caroling outside their houses. * Why do people hang
