"Fruit Cake" notes (1846--)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

   Christine Ammer's FRUITCAKES & COACH POTATOES, AND OTHER DELICIOUS
EXPRESSIONS (1995) notes that the OED has "fruit cake" from only 1854.
Merriam-Webster has 1848.
   Andrew F. Smith, who the NEW YORK TIMES reported is working on the
upcoming OXFORD ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FOOD AND DRINK (sic),  queried
rec.food.historic about "fruit cake" in December 2000.  Supposedly, it's in
THE POCUMTUC HOUSEWIFE (1805) and Eliza Acton's MODERN COOKERY FOR PRIVATE
FAMILIES (1845), among other places before 1854.
   I haven't checked NEW YORK TIMES full text yet, but I've been checking
other databases for "fruit cake" and "fruitcake," also with the word "tin"
added.



LITERATURE ONLINE DATABASE (Prose)

Hall, Baynard Rush, 1798-1863
   Something for Every Body: Gleaned in the Old Purchase, from Fields Often
Reaped.  By Robert Carlton (pseud.) (1846)
   ...sizes and colors, and eating fruit cake and ices, sipping lemonade,...

Lippard, George, 1822-1854
   Paul Ardenheim, the Monk of Wissahikon (1848)
   ...slice cut off from the fruit-cake of aristocracy!



MAKING OF AMERICA (CORNELL)

April 1846, THE AMERICAN WHIG REVIEW, pg. 380:
   ...sponge cake and fruit cake.



MAKING OF AMERICA (MICHIGAN-JOURNALS)

December 1849, SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER, pg. 739:
   ...she had a fruit cake to give them on their birth-day.

December 1890, OVERLAND MONTHLY AND OUT WEST MAGAZINE, pg. 642:
   It was a piece of neglect next to a sin in her eyes if there was not at
all times a month-old loaf of fruit cake put away in the tin cake-box in the
cool sstore-room "in case of company."



MAKING OF AMERICA (MICHIGAN-BOOKS)

MRS. GOODFELLOW'S COOKERY AS IT SHOULD BE (1865):
   FRUIT CAKE.
(...)  These cakes will keep a year, if attention is paid to their being put
in a tin case, and covered tightly in an airy place.  They improve by
keeping.



AMERICAN MEMORY (LIBRARY OF CONGRESS)

(Letter) W. G. Catrell to Abraham Lincoln, June 23, 1864 (Send fruit cake).

(Photo) November 1939  Removing fruit cakes from tin in which they were baked
at bakery in San Angelo, Texas.



EARLY CANADIANA ONLINE

Traill, Catherine Parr
THE FEMALE EMIGRANT'S GUIDE, AND HINTS ON CANADIAN HOUSEKEEPING
(Toronto: Maclear, 1854)
   SWEET FRUIT-CAKE.
(...)  This is sold in the confectioners under the name of mince-pie and
pie-cake.