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The earliest fruit cake recipe from
ancient Rome lists pomegranate seeds, pine nuts, and raisins that were mixed into barley mash.
In the Middle Ages, honey, spices,
and preserved fruits were added, and the name "fruitcake" was first
used, from a combination of the words "fruit" (Latin: fructus, Old
French: frui), and "cake" (Old Norse: kaka, Middle
English: kechel).
Fruitcakes soon proliferated all over
Europe; however, recipes varied greatly in different countries
throughout the ages, depending on the available ingredients as well as
(in some instances) church regulations forbidding the use of butter,
regarding the observance of fast. Pope Innocent VIII (1432-1492)
finally granted the use of butter, in a written permission known as the
'Butter Letter' or 'Butterbrief.' The Holy
Father softened his attitude, and in 1490 he sent a permission to
Saxony, stating that milk and butter could be used in the North German
Stollen fruitcakes.
Starting in the 16th century, sugar from
the American Colonies (and the
discovery that high concentrations of sugar could preserve fruits)
created an excess of candied fruit, thus making fruitcakes more
affordable and popular.
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