When I think of Georgia I think about food–fresh orchard peaches, the buffet at Paula Dean’s Lady and Sons in Savannah, the Master’s signature pimento cheese sandwich in Augusta, Vidalia’s onions and Claxton Fruit Cake, the specialty of Claxton, Georgia. That’s right, fruit cake. I’m one of those people who never refuse a fruit cake, especially those made with a recipe that doesn’t skimp on the fruit and nuts and is hopefully soaked with whiskey or rum.

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To find such cakes I go to Claxton, Georgia, which claims to be the fruit cake capital of the world. Ok, Corsicana, Texas, home of Collin Street Bakery makes the same claim. Granted, Corsicana makes a great cake, too. However, I have to give the crown to Claxton because for over a century Claxton’s two bakeries – The Georgia Fruit Cake Company and the Claxton Fruit Cake Company – has baked more than five million pounds of Claxton fruit cake annually.

Claxton Bakery has been serving its customers for decades.

Hungry for more? Here’s the recipe for another Georgia favorite, peach pie.

Both bakeries are located in downtown Claxton just a few blocks apart. They both share beginnings that began with an Italian baker Savino Gillio-Tos who founded the Claxton Bakery. Georgia Fruit Cake Company founder Ira Womble, apprenticed under Gillio-Tos, who broke away to open his own shop, The Womble Bakery. Today, The Georgia Fruit Cake Company’s downtown bakeshop still operates a traditional bakery on Duval Street selling variety of baked goods along with two styles. Their traditional Georgia version and the bourbon laced Womble’s version. Both are available via mail order but not online, the website (www.georgiafruitcakecompany.com) only provides a link for contact phone numbers.

Even people who think they don’t like fruit cakes will like Georgia fruit cakes.

Cakes from the Claxton Fruit Cake Bakery may well have been the first you tasted since millions were sold each year as a fundraiser for non-profit organizations since the 1950s. I sold cases of Claxton one-pound fruitcake bars myself, the ways and means project to fund my Job Daughters chapter. It was a sweet memory for me when I saw the one-pound bar fruit cakes stacked on the shelves in Claxton’s gift shop after a tour of the bakery. Sharing shelf space with the boxed bars were individually wrapped fruit cake slices and chocolate covered fruit cake nuggets.

The Claxton Fruit Cake Company has an impressive online shop and features another famous Georgian food, pecans, sold plain, glazed, sugared encrusted (praline) or chocolate dipped. Yep, chocolate dipped. Hopefully, giving fruit cake haters a valid reason to give the holiday confection another try. After all, chocolate makes almost anything better. – by Suzanne Corbett, RFT Food History Editor