Every christmas season, I always assume that our fridge would be filled with ham, softdrinks, pancit, and the very famous fruitcake. I just wonder why fruitcakes are so popular every christmas season. It may be a gift, be bought from stores, or be home-made.

There is a standard old joke about the oldest family heirloom being a fruit cake. They said that 'fruitcakes are forever'. I found it easy to believe because the main ingredient in fruitcakes is wine. Wine can last for some time- the more preserved, the better.

Fruit cake is a British specialty. English passed out slices of cake to poor women who sang Christmas carols in the street during the late 1700s. It is known that in England by the end of the 18th century there were laws restricting the use of plum cake (plum being the generic word for dried fruit at the time) to Christmas, Easter, weddings, christenings and funerals. The fruit cake as known today cannot date back much beyond the Middle Ages. It was only in the 13th century that dried fruits began to arrive in Britain, from Portugal and the east Mediterranean.

Honestly, I dislike fruitcakes. I think that its sophistication makes it taste awful. I guess people love the idea of eating a variety of fruits together when they eat fruitcakes.

Fruitcakes, anyone?