For me, it depends on who makes the fruitcake.
Here in Georgia, we have a company called Claxton Fruitcake Company. (It's sort of a point-of-pride that we have a company that makes fruitcakes.) Laugh all you want, but that's the way it seems to be. I'm not a big fan of fruitcakes, but I might buy this one, just because it's from Georgia. It's not my favorite fruitcake though - the Claxton Fruitcakes are rectangular ('just right for a doorstop'...oh my gosh what a terrible thing to say!) They run about $18.
When and if I eat fruitcake, I like the ones from Collin Street Bakery of Corsicana, Texas.
It's sort of a family tradition, because Grandma Anderson used to send them every year. After she passed away, (it was a non-fruitcake-related death) my mother started sending them.
Collin Street Bakery has been making their DeLuxe Fruitcake since 1896, never veering from their original recipe. Why mess with a good thing?
If fruitcake isn't your thing, they have all kinds of other cakes - pecan cake, apple cinnamon pecan cake, pineapple pecan cake, etc. The DuLuxe Fruitcake is about $22 and comes in a beautiful round decorated tin. One of my favorite things about it is that the cake part is just delicious, and the pecans are never bitter. It makes a gorgeous presentation but I still can't get my kids to eat it (picky)
A little Georgia trivia for you, we pronounce pecan as "pea-CAN"... up North, it's often pronounced "p'cawn," but I think in Texas, it's a combination of the Northern and the Southern and comes out as "pea-cawn"
Oops - I went off on a tangent there.
Here's more information about fruitcakes, the tradition and origin of fruitcakes, from Merry-Christmas.com:
"Like many Christmas traditions, the idea of giving fruitcakes as gifts is thought to have originated in ancient times. No one ever recorded who took the first cake and added fruit, honey, nuts, and alcohol to make an edible gift for their family, but records indicate that this tradition was occurring in Rome prior to the birth of Jesus (B.C.).
One of the main reasons fruitcakes were given as gifts in early times is that the ingredients combined in such a way as to greatly reduce the spoiling of this food. This was a huge advantage when the average family had very little control over their food supply, and allowed people to travel longer distances since they could carry a food supply with them that would not spoil.
The fruitcake as we know it today evolved from plum cake recipes in England. It became a natural food to have for holiday celebrations, since it could be made in advance (sometimes many months in advance) and then families could be prepared to give their visitors a treat."
