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Show MfTTyrr laiipwipiHuwHP V in. Georgia for six years "Down here . . . there is more fruit Savino Tos, an Italian immi- grant, began it all m 1910 when he opened Claxton Bakery and began selling bread, homemade ice cream, pastries, and during the holidays fruitcake Tos hired two youngsters, Albert Parker and Ira Wbmble Sr., to perform chores around the bakery, never dreaming that 92 L AAt years later his fruitcake legacy would still be going strong, run Georgia Grant, Claxton Bakerys shipping manager and employee, can look at a by the very descendants of his Laura Scribner, retail manager at Georgia Fruit Cake, shows her companys products. pallet of fruitcakes and determine how many there are and how much they weigh. two young helpers Tos ran Claxton Bakery untd 1915, when he retired He remembers doing chores at the bakery when he and sold it to Albert Parker, who had worked for Tos for was 4 or 5, and his own son and daughter have both almost 20 years After World War II, Parker realized worked there We re trying to keep a firmly tradition that bread and ice cream were in plentiful supply m gas alive, he says. That heritage also is important at stations and grocery stores, so he decided to specialize in fruitcake Claxton Bakery, although Dale Parker has In 1948, Womble, who had moved seen his share of changes since entering the family business in 1974, including to Iowa in the 1920s, returned to Claxthe addition of a company website On a ton and opened Georgia Fruit Cake Co. Over the years, the two families typical day, they now create nearly 90.000 have not only supplied fruitcake to pounds of fruitcake, double what Albert Claxton, Gas water tower heralds the also have but Parker produced when he baked his first town's to America, high gone unique, and tasty, claim to fame. cakes m 1945. school together, given each other But one thing that won't change is cusswimming lessons, and operated their businesses with tradition in mind tomer service, Parker says This means you'll never talk to an answering machine Although no one besides direct descendants of Ira Sr have ever mixed a when you call the bakery batch of Womble fruitcake, the recipe We have always treated our customers the way we would want to be treated " is available for the asking, John lei lance Coikns, master baker, Womble says It's a family recipe, but knows fruitcakes are done Karan 41 Robinson is a writer based tn South when theyVe goideavbrown. its not a secret - Km 1 J ar Carolina. b. i n a y o g is o S p 1C ( d 1 a fruitcake? (for goodness sake) Fruitcakes have been popular for centuries because of three qualities. First, being saturated with various alco-hoti- c liquors such as rum and brandy, they can last a long tune up to 25 years in a sealed tin, by some accounts. Craig Claiborne, food writer for The New York Times, once wrote his mother had in that he inherited a her possession since ISSO.This lasting quality made fruitcakes a perfect food for long trips and voyages in earl.er times. Second, being saturated with rum or brandy, fruitcakes have a certain ... well, character and kick that other cakes bdcThe cakes therefore were so revered in Puritan England, in fact, that laws governed how many times a year fruitcakes could be made. And finally the cakes are extremely tasty. Made of dried fruit and nuts with just enough batter to keep everything together, a small bite goes a long way. The baked cakes are vaguely related to English plum puddings (which contained no plums; plum was a generic word for like the fruit or nut ingreany dried dients of mincemeat, were often fermented in a crock for a year or more, fed periodic doses of brandy then added to batter and baked. If fruitcakes are heavy (and they generally are), thats d !, berate. They aren't meant to rise to the light, fluff texture of modem birthday cakes. Instead, they are meant to be a treat erf substance, to be sampled fa small pieces. Don't rusKTake 25 years, if you like. fruitJ-Thes- American Profile Page 7 |