Types of Fruit Cakes

Fruitcake is associated in most people's minds with the Christmas season, and indeed, most types of fruitcake known around the world are usually served as part of this holiday celebration. Perhaps fruitcake's greatest claim to fame is the fact that so many people dislike this holiday dessert, and it has become the butt of numerous jokes and even inspired its own festival, the Great Fruitcake Toss, which is held the first Saturday in January in Manitou Springs, Colorado. What people may not know about this much-maligned confection, however, is that not all fruitcakes are alike. There are actually numerous variants of this type of cake: You might even find one of these that you'll enjoy, even if you are among the legions of fruitcake haters.

Light Fruitcake

Light fruitcake is so called because it is made with light-colored ingredients such as white sugar, light corn syrup, candied pineapple, dried apricots, coconut and almonds. Light fruitcakes tend to be "cakier" than dark ones, and may contain less alcohol, or none at all.

Dark Fruitcake

Dark fruitcake is not only darker in color, but usually heavier than light fruitcake. It contains ingredients such as brown sugar, molasses, dark raisins, dates, prunes, cherries, walnuts and pecans. Dark fruitcakes can be made alcohol-free, but the typical dark fruitcake is often soaked in some type of spirit such as rum, brandy or bourbon.

Dundee Cake

Dundee cake is a traditional Scottish fruitcake. It is fairly light in color, and is made with currants, raisins and cherries. The classic Dundee cake is made with whiskey, preferably a fine single malt Scotch.

Panettone

Panettone, which originated in Milan, Italy, is more of a sweet bread than an actual cake. It is made from flour, yeast, sugar, butter, egg yolks, water, salt, raisins and candied citrus peel, and is baked in a distinctive domed shape. The Italian government regulates the name "panettone," and will only allow certain manufacturers to apply it to the breads they export. These brands, which can easily be recognized by their pyramid-shaped boxes, include Perugina, Bauli, Flamigni, Alemagna-Motta, Le Tre Marie, Alemagna-Motta, Valentino and Alemagna-Motta.

Stollen

Germany's contribution to the holiday fruitcake genre is the loaf-shaped stollen, also known as Christstollen or Weihnachtsstollen (Christmas stollen). Stollen is somewhat breadlike, as it is made with yeast in addition to flour, water, sugar, salt, eggs, milk, lemon and/or orange peel, and spices such as cardamom, mace or cinnamon. The stollen may also be flavored with rum, and may include nuts and/or marzipan. Stollen also can claim its own festival, the annual Stollenfest held in Dresden, Germany. At this festival stollen is baked, eaten, even paraded through town...but it is never, ever shot out of a cannon as is the fate of its more unfortunate American cousin at the Manitou Springs Fruitcake Toss.

References

• Blue Skies Inn
• San Francisco Gate