British Influences on American Foodways: Fruit Cake

A classic British influenced Holiday Fruit Cake, recipes below

While doing interviews for my book Hog and Hominy I found a number of Americans with vivid memories of fruit cake from their childhood. They remind us of the British cultural footprint print left throughout her colonies long after independence. This is another chapter in our continuing series on British influences on the Americas. Clara [Bullard] Pittman, is a terrific cook born in 1948 in the very rural farming community of Pinehurst, Georgia. She recalls that on Christmas her mother made homemade fruitcake from what she grew in her yard. The children of West Indian parents I interviewed also associated childhood Christmas memories with homemade fruit cake. Making Christmas fruitcake was a long process, according to the 84 old Benjamin Outlaw. When asked what Christmas was like growing up in Windsor, North Carolina, Outlaw responded, “Oh boy, it was like heaven.” Mother “would start cooking her fruitcake, sometime about a month before Christmas. And she always made [either apple or grape] wine.” Hattie Outlaw poured the “wine on the cake until Christmas . . . building it up.” This must have worked to season the cake, “because it was the best fruitcake I have ever eaten.” Here are an host a fruit cake recipes the UK and the Americas. We would love to hear about your childhood fruit cake memory in the comment section below.

BBC Fruit Cake Recipes:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/fruit_cake

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/rich_moist_all-purpose_35561

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/rich_christmas_cake_with_41416

BBC Marzipan Christmas cake with butter icing recipe: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/rich_christmas_cake_with_41416

American Fruit Cake Recipes: http://mbgoodman.tripod.com/fruitcakerecipes.html

British Influences on North American Foodways Series:

http://www.foodasalens.com/2009/12/historical-look-at-mince-meat-pie-for.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/04/molasses-and-social-classes.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/10/get-out-vote-machines-then-and-now.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-day-series-part-3-pie.html

http://www.foodasalens.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-day-series-part-5-english.html