The Thanksgiving Trap That Isn’t One (For Most, Anyway)

You don’t normally associate high calorie, high sugar, carbo-loaded desserts with desserts that no one wants to eat, but over the years, fruit cake has taken on that unusual quality.  And as such, this may be the easiest of Thanksgiving/Christmas food traps to avoid.

Fruit cake has gotten a bad rap almost from the get-go.  It’s been the subject of late night comedians’ monologues (ala Johnny Carson), fodder for cartoon characters (ala Garfield) and poked fun at as a cake that never seems to get old.  In fact, Johnny Carson once said that there’s only been one fruit cake ever made—it’s just been passed from family to family for lo these many years!

His joke has some truth.  Not so much that there’s only been one produced, but that fruit cake has a lifespan that’s infinite in food years:  some fruit cakes can last as long as 25 years before spoiling!  This fact, in and of itself, demonstrates why fruit cake is such a misnomer.  After all, if fruit cake was really fruit-based, it would spoil in several days, never mind several years!

No, what fruit cake is really based in is sugar.  Lots and lots of sugar.  A traditional fruit cake calls for such nutritional luminaries as candied cherries, candied pineapple, candied sugar (notice a trend?), one cup of sugar, one cup of butter, and a few other not-so-nutritional nuggets.  To top it all off, its drenched in one of various liquors, and then coated in a thick layer of powdered sugar for preservation —just in case there wasn’t enough sugar to preserve it already.

With an ingredient listing like this, you can imagine how many calories are in the average slice.  A one-fifth slice of fruit cake (remember, most fruit cakes are slightly smaller than the average pie plate) runs about 300 calories, nine grams of fat, 30 mg of cholesterol and a whopping 40 grams of sugar!

Now, because I’m not exactly a fruit cake fan, I’m hesitant to suggest something as an alternative.  Nevertheless, I know people like fruit cake (yes, they do actually exist), and believe it or not, there are some organic recipes that are a shade healthier than the traditional version.

One such recipe I found calls for dried figs, raisins, apricots and dates; raw almonds and hazelnuts; fresh fruit and raw organic almond butter (a dollop’s worth).  This version cuts down on the sugar content, and lives up to its name by adding actual fruit to the fruit cake.  What a concept!

If fruit cake makes a regular appearance at your Thanksgiving table, give this recipe a try.  Then send me an email and tell me how it tastes.  Maybe I’ll try it next year.

Maybe.

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Sources
caloriecount.about.com
articledashboard.com
en.wikipedia.org