In so doing, we shouldn't knock that bowl of porridge. Tradition runs strong in many Atlantic Canadian homes that Christmas breakfast consists of such a thing, albeit usually devoid of the spices and dried fruit that came to be part of the early pottage. Although today's add-ons might be raisins, molasses, honey, but mostly brown sugar, it's still a long way from fruitcake.
Ask Ian Green and he'll tell you that a great fruitcake starts with a good recipe, the best of ingredients, and baking ahead to give it lots of time for the flavours to meld.
Ian, who with his wife Penny Steele, operates the charming English Country Garden Bed & Breakfast and Cottages on the Cabot Trail, at Indian Brook, Cape Breton, has tried many recipes before finding the one that "wins hands down every time."
"The key to this delicious fruitcake that has the visitors to our annual Christmas Open House raving about the moistness and flavour is the pineapple," Ian says.
Shortly before "Stir-up Sunday," Ian and Penny make the 10-hour return trip to a bulk food store in Halifax to buy the ingredients that will go into the batter. Back home, everything is prepared in advance of that special Sunday, when friends come and take a turn at stirring the batter-and making a wish that just might be granted.
Scouting around in search of the best-ever fruitcake, we asked Joan Perrin of Montague, PEI for her favourite. Without hesitation she claimed that her friend Phyllis Johnson makes a pecan fruitcake that is "to die for." Joan makes it every year, keeping some in the fridge for the summer.
Phyllis, who now lives in Winslow, PEI is originally from St. John's, NL, where she got the recipe 20 years ago. It has become such a family favourite that she has to make four or five cakes every year.
When we asked Marg Demerson, former columnist for the Daily Gleaner in Fredericton, to tell us who makes the best fruitcake in New Brunswick, she was quick to answer. Her friend Muriel McLaughlin got the nod for two kinds of fruitcake! While we liked that Muriel adds Newfoundland screech to her dark fruitcake, we decided on the white cake to add variety to our options.
Muriel says she's been making this cake for 50 years, like her mother before her. Now, Muriel's daughter, Donna Dick, also of Fredericton, is the third generation to make it.
Cookbook author Joan Over, of Shoal Harbour, NL, who does a food column for the local newspaper, The Packet, has fond memories of her Aunt Hazel's Black Fruitcake.
"She always made her fruitcakes in September, and after storing them for a month or so, she would take them out, punch holes deep into the cakes and generously pour dark rum or screech over them. Then she would rewrap them in cheesecloth and return them to their containers to age in a cool place until needed," Joan says.
There are even long-standing customs in Atlantic Canada that include this sweet treat, like mummering (see our feature in Home for the Holidays). No matter how you slice it, the holidays just wouldn't be the same without fruitcake.