Slice Up the Fruitcake

This week, we’re looking at something I don’t like very much – fruitcake. This seasonal sweet treat has never appealed to me. But while preparing for a recent Flickr album featuring images of butter and baking, I stumbled upon three fruitcake photos that caught my eye and deserved detailed views.

First up, a Russell Lee photograph taken in San Angelo, Texas for the Farm Security Administration.

In the photo, fruitcakes are removed from their baking tins. My eye was led to a detail in the upper left corner of the image. An object hangs on the wall and on it you can clearly read “K C Baking Powder.”

Compare that detail to this trademark registration from 1891:

Not much seems to have changed on the baking powder’s packaging in the nearly 50 years that passed since the trademark was registered. The hanging object is likely a notebook that was made for promotional purposes.

Around the same time that Lee took that photo, a baker in Ojai, California sent a fruitcake to the White House. William Cook Baker was quite famous for his elaborate confections, this photo shows the 1936 cake that was given to Franklin D. Roosevelt.

It is in the details that these cakes shine! The 1936 cake is adorned with the White House, though a closer inspection adds more flavor. The detail shows the south front of the White House as the focal point. If you think this view is different today, you are correct! In 1948, the Truman balcony was added.

From the December 13, 1936 issue of the Los Angeles Times, “Weighing approximately 100 pounds, the President’s cake this year is more ornate than ever. It is seventy-two inches in circumference…As in the past, the top center is featured by a replica of the White House, executed in sugar by the deft fingers of Baker… On the front lawn of the White house cake design, Baker has a scroll in red and gold lettering which reads, “Merry Christmas to President and Mrs. Roosevelt.”

Baker’s 1939 cake for the President featured a famous California landmark:

The center decoration on the 1939 cake is the Santa Barbara Mission (with a little artistic license).

While the 1936 cake was festooned with poinsettias, the 1939 cake featured roses.

Though I still don’t like the taste of fruitcake, I’ve come to appreciate it. As is the case with any good baked treat, there can be joy in the details

Learn More:

• Browse a Flickr album on butter and baking.
• Compare the confectionary structures William Cook Baker built to the actual buildings: View images of the south front of the White House. And have a look at images of the Santa Barbara Mission.
• Admire other cakes presented to the Roosevelts.