RECOMMENDED
Assumption Abbey Fruitcake, baked by Trappist monks in Ava, Missouri, weighs 2 pounds and comes in a tin. The cake can be purchased through Williams-Sonoma (www.williams-sonoma.com) for $42.00 or ordered directly from the abbey (www.assumptionabbey.org) for $26.00. We ordered from the abbey. Its Web site was well organized, and the cake was delivered within a week. This fruitcake received more first-place votes than any other we sampled, largely because no one element was overpowering. The liquor (rum), spices, and fruit all worked well together.
Butterfield Farms in St. Louis, Missouri, has been making fruitcakes since 1917. We purchased a 2-pound fruitcake at the farm's Web site (www.butterfieldfarms.com) for $24.95. The cake came within a week. While many tasters didn't like the color of this almost blond cake, the consensus was that it tasted the least like fruitcake, making it the favorite of the "I don't like fruitcake" camp. Some tasters picked up on a butterscotch flavor, some said it tasted like a Snickers candy bar, while a few found it reminiscent of unbaked cookie dough. The cake is made with bourbon, rum, and brandy, but the liquor flavor was overwhelmed by the sweetness. Most tasters liked it as a cake, but none thought it tasted like a fruitcake.
RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATION
We bought a 2 1/2 pound Kentucky Bourbon Fruitcake for $27.00 from the Gethsemani Abbey in Trappist, Kentucky (www.gethsemanifarms.org) delivery took more than two weeks. This fruitcake won praise from the handful of tasters who said they enjoy a "boozy," highly spiced fruitcake (the cake contains burgundy wine as well as Kentucky bourbon). A number of tasters, however, felt the alcohol content was high enough to burn; others found this offering to be more spice cake than fruitcake. It also contained less fruit than most of the other cakes sampled, and some tasters felt this made it too dry.
Collins Street Bakery in Corsicana, Texas, has been baking fruitcake since 1896. We bought the bakery's 1 7/8 pound Deluxe Fruitcake for $19.95 (www.collinstreetbakery.com/); delivery took more than two weeks. One of only two fruitcakes in our sample that did not include liquor in its ingredients, it was by far the nuttiest, with pecans making up more than 27 percent of its weight. Tasters who like pecans liked the cake; those who don't found the nutty confection bland and lacking in interest. It was uniformly criticized for its large quantity of red and green glacéed cherries; seasonal though they may be, these bright colors struck tasters as "alarmingly" artificial.
NOT RECOMMENDED
Harry and David is the largest of the suppliers we ordered from, and the company's Web (
http://www.harryanddavid.com/) was a little confusing, making it hard to figure out where we could order a plain fruitcake as opposed to "fruitcake confectionary" (a candy made with fruitcake ingredients). The 1-pound cake cost $17.95 (making it the most expensive of the five by weight) and arrived promptly. This cake had the fewest champions. Its overabundance of glacéed fruit was largely to blame, as even fruitcake fans commented that the fruit colors were weird. Most tasters also found the texture to be too dry and crumbly. This cake did not include liquor as an ingredient.
In the end, we found enough tasters who not only confessed to liking fruitcake but felt that it contributed to the holiday spirit. For fruitcake admirers, we recommend the Assumption Abbey Fruitcake. We also recommend the Butterfield Farms fruitcake as a good food gift for the holidays, but just call it cake.
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