Watch enough holiday movies or TV shows, and you’ll probably start to see a trend when it comes to the topic of fruit cake.
Let’s just say it doesn’t seem to be on the top of everyone’s favorite holiday treat list. The typical reference is something along the lines of ‘why did they give me this?’
But to be perfectly honest, we’ve never tried one. After all those glowing reviews, what would be our motivation to do so?
Well, a story. We’ve often been willing to try just about anything to fill a page and if that meant going against every possible red flag when it comes to the fruit cake, so be it.
Now, we don’t believe that every fruit cake is created like the ones you see and hear about in the movies. There are probably some really tasty ones made at local bakeries all over the country, but those aren’t the ones we wanted to investigate. Well, actually we would, but that’s for another story and another day.
What we wanted to do was find one of those pre-packaged fruit cakes that everyone seems to turn their noses up at. It couldn’t really be that bad? Could it?
So we went to Market Basket on Storrs Street to see what we could find. And sure enough, on a table near the front entrance, we saw it – Old Fashion Claxton Fruit Cake. It was exactly what we had in mind when we embarked on this unknown journey. It claimed to be world famous and the company had been baking up fruit cakes since 1910, so we figured why not.
It was just $3.49 for the one-pound cake, which would be more than enough for a taste test. From what we could conclude, this fruit cake included raisins and cherries, a green fruit that we couldn’t quite identify, a mixture of nuts and a few other surprises.
Let’s just say, this particular one was not our cup of tea. It was quite sweet, had an overwhelming amount of fruit per bite (which is probably why it’s called a fruit cake) but didn’t have much cake to speak of.
We finished a slice, trying to determine what each bite included, but that was all we could do. Luckily, reporters and editors will eat just about anything so it didn’t go to waste.
But just because we didn’t enjoy it as much as we hoped – we really thought this could become part of our holiday traditions – doesn’t mean you won’t like it. If you’ve never tried a classic, store bought fruit cake, you really should. It’s one of those experiences everyone should live through.
Any by no means does this mean fruit cakes are off our approved list of holiday foods forever. We’re just going to have to find one that meets our criteria a little better, like more cake than fruit.
Maybe each year, we’ll try a new one to see if we find one that we like? There’s always next year.
