National Fruitcake Day

National Fruitcake Day is part of America’s year-end holiday celebrations. The fruitcake is recognized on December 27 annually. You might be accused of being as “nutty as a fruitcake” for continuing to read this, but please humor me.

You may know the humble fruitcake as a traditional holiday staple of your grandma’s kitchen. Or a gift-giving tradition that is often the punchline of a joke.

Either way, there is much more to the humble fruitcake than meets the eye. Let’s cut into this dessert cake and take a bite by answering these frequently asked questions.

When is National Fruitcake Day?

The celebration day recognizes the iconic tradition of fruitcakes during the holidays. It is observed on December 27 each year.

What day is National Fruitcake Day this year?

To find out what day National Fruitcake Day falls on this year, consult the chart below.

Calendar Year	Date	Day of the Week
2020	December 27	Sunday
2021	December 27	Monday
2022	December 27	Tuesday
2023	December 27	Wednesday
2024	December 27	Friday
2025	December 27	Saturday

How do we celebrate National Fruitcake Day?

There are many ways to celebrate National Fruitcake Day. Here are just a few to get you started:

Make a fruitcake from scratch. By creating your own homemade fruitcake, you can use only the ingredients you know your family will like. You might be surprised how good a freshly-baked fruitcake can be!

Serve your freshly-baked fruitcake during the holidays to family and friends.

Have a fruitcake party. Ask them to bring a homemade fruitcake or their favorite bakery’s fruitcake so you can compare. Make it a fun contest!

Give a fruitcake to someone you love. Fruitcakes make the perfect Christmas gift, not to mention they are great conversation pieces!

Take photos of your homemade fruitcake and post them online. Or share images of your favorite fruitcake from the local bakery with your online community. Use the hashtags below to tag your images.

Fruitcake fun facts

1.) Widespread mail-order sales of fruitcakes began in 1913.

2.) 38% of people re-gift fruitcakes.

3.) It’s believed ancient Egyptians placed fruitcakes in burial tombs for their loved one’s afterlife.

4.) The heaviest fruitcake ever made weighed 619 lbs, according to the Guinness World Records.

5.) Fruitcake is not just for the holiday season. English wedding hosts serve fruitcakes. Royals Kate Middleton and Princess Diana each served fruity cake at their weddings.

Fruitcake captions for Instagram

Nutty as a fruitcake.
The worst gift.
Hefty, hefty, hefty!
This is why regifting became popular.
The gift that keeps being given.
Born circa 1957.
Lots of nuts.
Friends = fruitcakes (nutty, soaked with alcohol, and sweet).
Let them eat cake.
So hard, so mushy.
Why?
Net weight: 20 pounds.
Was hoping I’d get something I wanted this Xmas.
I’d rather have a lump of coal.
Already thinking of whom to give this to.
Fruitcakes: If you believe in the afterlife.
Fruitcake is forever.
Friends don’t let friends eat fruitcake.
My new favorite doorstop.
Yule never guess what I got.
A slice of joy in every bite.
Ho ho ho fruitcake.
No such thing as too much fruit cake.

What are some National Fruitcake Day Hashtags?

#NationalFruitcakeDay

#fruitcake

#MerryChristmas

#NothingNuttier

#HolidayCake

#baking

#nuttierthanafruitcake

Jokes about Fruitcakes

Why are fruitcakes so popular?
Despite the best efforts by USPS, Federal Express, and UPS, no one has figured how to destruct a fruitcake.

Did you hear about all of the possession recovered from the Bakery Co-op burglary?
No one has come to claim the fruitcakes.

What do you do if no one comes to your holiday party?
You can have your fruitcake and eat it, too!

What’s the difference between a fruitcake and a bowling ball?
About a pound or two.

How do you make up the difference?
Add iron weights to the bowling ball.

FAQs about Fruitcakes

Here are some frequently asked questions with answers about fruitcakes.

What is a fruitcake?

Fruitcake is a rich, dense cake made with chopped candied or dried fruit, with nuts and spices added. Some recipes may call for spirits to be added, like liqueurs or brandy, to make it even more rich and sweet tasting.

By the way, fruitcake is sometimes spelled in two words “fruit cake” or called fruit bread.

Fruitcakes are most often consumed without additional butter or cream because of their inherent sweetness.

Why do we eat fruitcakes at Christmas?

The English developed the tradition of eating fruitcakes during the holiday season. They sometimes called it Christmas cake or plum cake. Englanders eventually brought the tradition to America.

What percentage of people eat fruitcakes received as a gift?

According to a recent survey, only about 1/3 of the people who receive fruitcake as a gift actually eat it. It’s most popular in the southern United States.

Why is fruitcake so hated?

So why is fruitcake often the punchline of jokes? There are several possible reasons it is seen as the black sheep of traditional holiday foods:

There is a popular misconception that fruitcake tastes bad. This is probably due to its many brightly colored, jellied fruits and its heavy, brick-like weight.

Fruitcake is rumored to last forever because it is often mass-produced and has a lengthy shelf life.

Even the word ‘fruitcake’ has become a derogatory term meaning ‘nutty’ or’ crazy person. This possibly began as early as 1935, when southern bakeries began adding an abundance of nuts to their fruitcakes.

What is the history of fruitcake?

Fruitcakes date back to ancient Roman times when people made heavy cakes out of barley mash, pine nuts, pomegranate seeds, and raisins.

By the Middle Ages, additional ingredients like honey, spices, and preserved fruits were added.

In the 16th century, bakers discovered that high concentrations of sugar (available from the American Colonies) would preserve fruit for longer periods. This made the fruits much more abundant and affordable to the masses. Cooks began adding the candied fruits to their fruitcake mix.

How to make a fruitcake video

Fruitcake Quotes

The easiest way to make a fruitcake is to buy a darkish cake, then pound some old, hard fruit into it with a mallet. Be sure to wear safety glasses.
Dave Barry

Friends are the fruitcake of life—some nutty, some soaked in alcohol, some sweet.
Jon Ronson

Have you ever known anyone who bought a fruitcake for himself? Of course not. They are purchased as Christmas gifts, mostly for people you don’t particularly like.
Phyllis Diller

The ultimate in longevity is the Christmas fruitcake. It is a cake made during the holidays with fruits that make it heavier than the stove it is cooked in.
Erma Bombeck

My husband bought a fruitcake one year. He ate some of it, but I wrapped the rest and gave it back to him for Christmas. The next year, I found it amongst my presents from him. It developed from there. This one’s been around 15 to 20 years. The first one lasted about that long, too. Fruitcakes are made to withstand the test of time.
Rikki Rosenberg

Fruitcake Sayings

Political advice is a bit like your average Christmas fruitcake: something everyone gives and no one wants.
Bob Dole

There’s a little bit of fruitcake left in every one of us.
Jimmy Buffett

Look at the world as a big fruitcake. It wouldn’t be complete without a few nuts in it.
Unknown

The worst gift is a fruitcake. There is only one fruitcake in the entire world, and people keep sending it to each other.
Johnny Carson

A brick is like a fruitcake. You don’t want to use it up all at once, and in fact, you don’t want to use it up at all. Well, if you won’t use it, then give it to someone who will. Every other Christmas, I get the gift of fruitcake—and I think it’s the same loaf that I gave to that person the year before.
Jarod Kintz

Airport screeners are now scanning holiday fruitcakes. Not even the scanners can tell what those little red things are.
David Letterman

Quotations about the Ultimate Christmas Gift

The thing with children is they’re a bit like baking a fruitcake: you throw all the ingredients in, but you never know how they’re going to turn out.
Len Goodman

A woman without a past is like a fruitcake without brandy—insipid!
Nancy Atherton

Bring on the fruitcakes, we want a fruitcake for an unlovable seat.
Matthew Parris

Christmas is the season of love, and love means fruit cake.
Unknown

Reality is like a fruitcake, pretty enough to look at but with all sorts of nasty things lurking just beneath the surface.
A. Lee Martinez

For months they have lain in wait, dim shapes lurking in the forgotten corners of houses and factories all over the country, and now they are upon us, sodden with alcohol, their massive bodies bulging with strange green protuberances, attacking us in our homes, at our friends’ homes, at our offices – there is no escape, it is the hour of the fruitcake.
Deborah Papier

Happy holidays, everyone!

By Katie Closner

Katie writes about family, holidays, and crafts.

Etcetera

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