The earliest recipe from ancient Rome lists pomegranate seeds, pine nuts, and raisins that were mixed into barley mash.

Recipes varied greatly in different countries throughout the ages, depending on the available ingredients as well as (in some instances) church regulations forbidding the use of butter, regarding the observance of Fasting.

[4] The 17th-century English fruitcake was originally yeast-leavened, and the rum and dried fruit helped extend the shelf life of the cake.

All of the candied fruits, walnuts, and raisins are placed in an enclosed container and are soaked with the darkest variety of rum, anywhere from 2 weeks to 3 months in advance.

Recipes for keks vary, but commonly it contains flour, butter and/or cooking oil, milk, yeast, yoghurt, eggs, cocoa, walnuts, and raisins.

[7] The recipe originated in 1491, when after several generations of lobbying by Elector Ernest, Duke Albert III, and their ancestors, Pope Innocent VIII gave an exemption to the Roman Catholic ban on using butter during Lent to Saxon bakers.

In Southern Germany and the Alpine region, Früchtebrot (also called Berewecke, Birnenbrot, Hutzenbrot, Hutzelbrot, Kletzenbrot, Schnitzbrot, or Zelten) is a sweet, dark bread baked with nuts and dried fruit, e.g. apricots, figs, dates, plums, etc.

Fruitcake is a rich dense cake packed with dry fruits and nuts flavoured with spices usually made during Christmas.

The cake contains different objects such as a ring or small coin, each signifying a different fortune for the person who finds it.

There are various types of fruitcakes from the Emilia-Romagna region, most being dark and heavily spiced with an abundance of candied fruit and nuts.

The certosino from Bologna is a round cake similar to panforte but with aromatic spices and a variety of whole-halved candied fruit decorating the top; dark chocolate is often added to the dough for a richer flavour.

Panone, produced in much of Emilia, is similar to the certosino, but with a lighter, fluffier dough and candied fruit inside the cake rather than used as decoration.

Candied fruit is not often found and instead there is a high concentration of nuts within the dough; the entire cake is often coated in dark chocolate.

Gubana is a Christmas/holiday cake from the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, specifically from the area around Cividale del Friuli.

Panettone is a Milanese sweet bread (widely available throughout Italy and in many other countries), served around Christmas, which is traditionally filled with dried and candied fruits, with a bread-like consistency.

It is a loaf shaped sponge cake with a substantial content of nuts, raisins, figs and candied fruits.

Although French in its origin, Bolo Rei is a traditional fruitcake enjoyed during Christmas season and a staple dessert in any Portuguese home during the holidays.

The fruit, wine and rum is prepared weeks, sometimes months, ahead, and has its origin in the English Christmas pudding, and can be quite expensive.

Both Collin Street and Claxton are Southern companies with inexpensive access to large quantities of nuts, for which the expression "nutty as a fruitcake" was derived in 1935.

[13] Most American mass-produced fruitcakes are alcohol-free, but those made according to traditional recipes are saturated with liqueurs or brandy and covered in powdered sugar, both of which prevent mould.

[citation needed] In the United States, fruitcake has become a ridiculed dessert, in part due to inexpensive mass-produced cakes of questionable age.

The all-time Great Fruitcake Toss record is 1,420 feet, set in January 2007 by a group of eight Boeing engineers who built the "Omega 380", a mock artillery piece fueled by compressed air pumped by an exercise bike.