Before I get into today's trivia, I need to address my entry into Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Contest. I'm not sure what happened. My entry was on their website yesterday and could be reached by the hotlink in the sidebar. For whatever reason it's not showing up today. Hopefully this is only temporary and you'll be able to pull it up in the near future. I'll keep you posted.
Today's topic is the nearly comical 'fruit cake'. Could the butt of so many jokes this time of year actually have a meaningful past? Is there an origin to that which gets re-gifted over and over? Was there an original purpose to this five pound door stop? Is it true that some cultures actually used it to build the foundations for their temples? The answer is truly surprising.
The history of fruit cake actually dates back to ancient Rome, but my area of interest lies in what we know as the modern day fruit cake. This "recipe" is relatively recent and only dates back to the early 1400s. At the time, the travel of ocean going vessels was limited by the storage of perishable fruits in the hold. Fresh fruits provided the vitamin C necessary to ward off scurvy among the crew. But as we all know, fresh fruit doesn't keep very long.
The answer to this crucial problem...you guessed it - that solid block of 'cake' that has everything in it but the kitchen sink. Lord knows that a fruit cake made today will outlive all but the youngest of us. It provided the necessary fruit (and vitamin c) that enabled the sailors of our past to explore new worlds. Who knows...maybe we even owe the discovery of America to the fruit cake. So before you make your next snide comment about the overlooked fruit cake, take it out of the trash can and saw off a slice. If it was good enough for old Chris Columbus - then surely it's good enough for us.
Now that you have the account it's up to you to decide. What's fact and what's fiction? Until next time, don't chip a tooth. J/W
