This article was first published in The Skeptical Inquirer.
It comes down to the high sugar content of fruitcake and the not insignificant amount of booze included in many recipes.
The oldest versions of fruitcake include a sort of energy bar made by the Romans with barley, honey, wine, and dried fruit and a more recognized style of fruitcake in the early Middle Ages in Europe.
Fruitcakes are typically extremely sweet desserts, filled with fried, sugared, or otherwise preserved fruits and nuts. Their environment is one rendered nearly uninhabitable to most microbes that would move into a cake and make it unsafe to eat.
The often traditional inclusion and/or dousing in various spirits certainly doesn’t help any germs survive.
