NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – Nobody’s on the fence about fruitcake.
Seems like you either love it or hate it.
Legend has it, if you sleep with a fruitcake under your pillow, you’ll dream of your one and only true love. So why does the fruitcake get such a rotten reputation?
Well, Greg Sorensen of Baker Maid in New Orleans, the bakery that’s been making fruitcakes since 1953, says, “it’s an easy target for bad comedians. But everybody still eats them. It’s one of our biggest sellers.”
Another tale tells that there’s just one fruitcake that’s given, then re-gifted, then re-gifted. In fact, the fruitcake is number eight on the list of most re-gifted gifts.
But the folks at New Orleans oldest and biggest fruitcake factory know better. Their fruitcakes sell across the country at department stores like Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and Dillard’s.
This New Orleans style fruitcake is called Creole Royal. You can also see it on the supermarket shelf this time of year. It’s at Rouses, Dorignac’s Food Center, Langenstein’s, Robert Fresh Market, Breaux Mart and Le Blanc’s Food Stores.
Back at Baker Maid in New Orleans, fruitcake Mixmaster Marcel Jackson is elbows-deep into his third holiday season. He’s the man behind the batter. And if you ask him if it’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas, Marcel says, “yea, it feels like Christmas. But it can’t be Christmas without fruitcake.”
WGNO News with a Twist features guy Wild Bill Wood invites you to take a big bite from what will be a sold out fruitcake season.