Here's Why You Need To Age Fruitcake

For many, the holiday season is filled with family gatherings, gifts, and unique traditions. Of course, eating and cooking delicious dishes is a festive activity almost everyone looks forward to. There are endless types of Christmas cookies, and those feeling extra creative may create over-the-top gingerbread creations. According to a Mashed survey, 36% of people choose honey-glazed ham as their go-to Christmas main dish. No matter what you're serving for your holiday meal, there's one food that can cause quite a stir at the holiday table.

Though it may be an iconic part of the holidays, fruitcake is quite contentious — people seem to either love it or hate it. And if we're being honest, it seems as though more people share the hate than the love. Fruitcake is especially maligned partially thanks to a 1980's Johnny Carson skit, where he declared the cake was the worst gift to give someone. All jokes aside, fruitcake has been a staple Christmas treat since the 16th century, when the English consumed a version of the cake to celebrate Christmastime coming to an end (per Martha Stewart). One of the major issues with this baked good is that if done incorrectly, fruitcake can be hard as a brick and flavorless to boot. For a successful fruitcake, you'll need to start prepping it way ahead of time.

For those who are unfamiliar, a fruitcake is a cake made with dried fruit and nuts that typically get soaked with liquor. It can be heavy and dense, and let's be real, is one of those baked goods where everyone who bakes fruitcake makes mistakes. One common and unfortunate mistake is not properly aging the fruitcake. Just like a fine wine or steak, fruitcake needs to be aged for optimal flavor and texture. According to Collin Street Bakery, you should start soaking and aging your fruitcake at least three months prior to eating it.

The easiest way to soak the cake is to first poke holes around in the baked cake with a skewer before pouring in your liquor or champagne. If you're worried about a pool of liquid, you can use a basting brush to gently coax the liquor into the holes. Once the cake is soaked, you need to retain the moisture by wrapping the cake. Three layers of wrapping — including cheesecloth, plastic wrap, and foil — keep the cake nice and moist. You're not done quite yet: This soaking-and-wrapping process gets repeated until you're ready to serve up your delicious (and moist) cake! As Martha Stewart notes, fruitcake was once "outlawed in Europe because it was considered 'sinfully' rich" — hopefully your decadent and not-at-all-dry creation will remind people why.