CORSICANA, Texas — In a vacation stuffed with traditional confections — sweet canes, gingerbread and sugarplums — there’s one which’s displaying up much less typically: fruitcake.
The deal with’s been on fewer and fewer dessert tables in current a long time. That could be thanks partially to Johnny Carson’s declaration years in the past: “The worst present is a fruitcake. There is just one fruitcake in your complete world, and other people hold sending it to one another.”
However fruitcake has been at historic occasions for hundreds of years, together with Princess Diana and King Charles’ marriage ceremony and a visit to the moon on Apollo 11.
At the moment, greater than 2 million fruitcakes are offered in america annually, with 20,000 a day coming from one small city in Texas. The bakery has its dwelling in Corsicana, a city about 50 miles south of Dallas.
Collin Road Bakery has been within the fruitcake enterprise for over 125 years. “I promise you this. If each American had Collin Road Bakery’s fruitcake at Christmas, then at present each family would have a fruitcake nonetheless at Christmas, as a result of ours may be very completely different,” mentioned Thomas McNutt.
McNutt, a third-generation proprietor on the bakery, mentioned that high quality elements make all of the distinction.
Every Collin Road fruitcake options Texas pecans, pineapple, raisins and cherries blended right into a batter, hand-decorated and baked.
“Some folks will try and bake a product only for the season, actually, with no eye to high quality … You may style a $2 wine or $2,000 wine, and there’s a giant distinction from the underside and the highest, and it’s the identical method on the planet of fruitcake,” mentioned Bob McNutt, one other household proprietor.
The bakery has delivered fruitcakes to celebrities, politicians and even made a cameo within the 1972 traditional movie “The Godfather.” Collin Road is so assured in its confection that it even provides a money-back assure.
For purchasers like Invoice Baxter, it’s all concerning the nostalgia. “It brings again reminiscences of what was once,” he mentioned. “It’s consolation.”
The McNutts say sharing these traditions throughout generations is a part of their mission.
“Everybody from grandma and grandpa to the grandkids, lots of people like to sit down down and like to style fruitcake at Christmas,” mentioned Bob McNutt.
“We predict that there’s a brand new form of a refound appreciation of custom, of household, of gathering and celebrating,” Thomas McNutt mentioned. “So fruitcake simply matches completely in that.”
