13 October 2012

Vintage fruitcake

Was just perusing my highly-rated fruitcakes list for the fruitcake tasting in November, and I noticed that Robert Lambert is selling vintage fruitcakes: that is, a fruitcake that is one year old. To some, "vintage fruitcake" could mean "old stock." Many fruitcakes are already aged a certain number of days or weeks in order to mellow or improve the flavors, so presumably that's the point of this one.

Unfortunately in my household a fruitcake never sees its one year birthday; they get eaten too quickly. So I don't have much experience with aged fruitcakes.

The idea of a vintage fruitcake tickles my fancy.  The fact that a fruitcake can age and improve speaks to its history of being a rich cake that preserved the harvest: the result and memory of abundance. Many baked goods are freshest on the day they're made  - "day-old" goods are sold at a discount. But this cake is being sold with a premium price tag, $10 more than the "non-vintage" cakes.

What are your thoughts on a vintage fruitcake? Do you like the idea? Would you want to eat  one? What do you think it would be like? Do you age the fruitcakes you buy?

5 comments:

Jennifer said...

if aged a year means a whole year of regular sprinklings of booze, it could well be worth that extra $10!

Isabelle said...

Agreed; I've written to Robert Lambert to find out exactly what "aging" entails. Will let you know!

Gregory Lee said...

I read over the Wikipedia entry for Château d'Yquem to get some sense of the possibilities of improving a sweet (like fruitcake) by long aging. I guess it could work, conceivably, if the fruitcake was prevented from drying out. Most likely, though, is that it's no more than a marketing gimmick. I hope you can arrange your test to include side by side tasting of vintage and non-vintage product.

Isabelle said...

Great idea, Greg!

Thom said...

I've had aged fruitcake and I can taste the difference! Just as wine realizes more levels of flavor and distinction, fruitcakes do as well. I've just ordered a Lambert aged Dark Fruitcake...can't wait! I looked in his media section and these fruitcakes have really scored some serious praise! Thanks for this post - great heads-up!