"Charles Gifford" > wrote in
hlink.net:

>
> "Daisy" > wrote in message
> ...
>> I read a newspaper article yesterday written by a non-USA person, who
>> had experienced life in a Brtitsh-style culture for a while. The
>> article was all about fruit cakes.
>
> One thing I've noticed in this thread is that, while the thread is
> titled "Christmas Cake", the conversation so far is about fruit cake,
> plum cake or similar. For me, a Christmas Cake is similar to a fruit
> cake, but has layer(s) of marzipan and nice crunchy icing over that.
>
> Charlie

Charlie, I think it depends largely on your country of origin or culture,
and family tradition. IMHO, "Christmas Cake" as a title is most often
referred to by the English and "usually" implies a rich and heavy fruit-
laden cake. While not often baked in layers, many fruitcakes in England
are covered completely in marzipan, then iced in what I believe is a
Royal Icing, which is certainly crunchy. I don't believe I have ever
seen any type of fruitcake in the USA covered in anything at all.

My family's heritage is English, although back many generations. My
maternal grandmother's fruitcake was never covered in anything. However,
she didn't call it a Christmas Cake. Christmas in her home usually
revealed 6-8 different types of rich cakes (many with fruits either in
the cake or in the filling) and none of them were actually called
Christmas Cake.

FWIW,
Wayne