KSFR reporter Mary Lou Cooper discusses the much-maligned fruitcake whose origins date back thousands of years. If there were an Ancestry.com for fruitcakes, we'd find relatives from ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, plus Italy and Germany and of course England. Modern-day bakers say
fruitcakes are enjoying a resurgence. Just this month, Southern Living Magazine featured a two-page spread titled: "Don't Knock This Fruitcake Until You Try It." Georgia's Claxton Bakery sells three million pounds of fruitcake each year and ships them to all 50 states and Canada. Corsicana, Texas's Collin Street Bakery sells a million pounds of fruitcake annually and ships to every U.S. state and more than 180 foreign countries. Claxton and Corsicana vie for Fruitcake Capital of the World.
Cooper relays her own experience with holiday fruitcakes baked by her mother. And she introduces listeners to "A Christmas Memory," an autobiographical tale by Truman Capote. Capote writes about a seven-year-old boy growing up poor in Alabama with a beloved elder cousin. Each year they gather pecans and save enough money to buy the candied fruit and brandy that go into their 31 fruitcakes baked especially for "friends" like President Roosevelt. We learn that fruitcake is not really about the fruit or the cake. Fruitcake is about making memories with people we love.
Music for this segment is: "Music Box We Wish You a Merry Christmas" by MaestroALF, Freesound, CC0 1.0.
