Science Fair Project Encyclopedia The earliest 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. Robert Sietsema finds that inexpensive sugar
from the American Colonies and the discovery that high
concentrations of sugar could preserve fruits created an excess
of candied fruit. The fruitcake was the way to use them. In the
18th century, Europeans were baking fruitcakes using nuts from
the harvest for good luck in the following year. The cake was
saved and eaten before the next harvest. Fruitcakes proliferated
until a law in Europe restricted them to Christmas, weddings,
and a few other holidays. Even so, the fruitcake remained
popular at Victorian Teas in England throughout the 19th
century. Mail-order fruitcakes began in 1913. The management of
Ringling Brothers Circus liked the fruitcake from a local bakery
in Corsicana, Texas. They ordered them a