The magical fruitcake recipe will convert haters, a forgotten N&O contest winner
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- Ruth Gerringer won The N&O fruitcake contest in 1992 and 1995 with fruit and nuts.
- Home bakers preserved Gerringer’s recipe; Norma Hoots Lynch bakes it annually for church.
- Recipe emphasizes over five pounds of mixed candied fruit and nuts, condensed milk binds.
As holiday staples go, fruitcake generally ranks among the most groan-inducing — a yuletide tradition as cherished as mailing packages at the post office or parking at the mall.
At Christmas potlucks, it consistently takes the prize for most throw-able dish, most likely to end up inside a potted plant or a beagle’s stomach.
But in 1992, a gifted Raleigh baker named Ruth Gerringer submitted her recipe to The N&O’s annual fruitcake contest, setting off what qualified as a Christmastime explosion, bombarding the judges with dates, Brazil nuts and a pound of candied pineapple.
She won handily.
Then she won again in 1995, using the same formula, launching her name into fruitcake immortality.
“I am convinced that if fruitcake haters will try a piece of fruitcake baked from my special recipe,” she said at the time, “there will be a revolution to restore fruitcake to where it rightfully belongs — among the special treats of all time.”
Vive La Revolution!
More than three decades later, Norma Hoots Lynch still bakes Gerringer’s fruitcake every year, having clipped the original from The N&O pages.
She likes it because it goes so light on the cake — just a little flour to bind everything together, not so much that a mouthful feels like chewing a blanket.
And where Ruth Gerringer’s recipe skimps on the cake, it doubles down on fruit and nuts: more than a pound apiece of cherries and pineapple and a metric ton of nuts.
To hear Hoots Lynch tell it, this cake will convert the staunchest fruitcake hater, powerful enough to impress the harshest judges: her senior dessert group at United Methodist Church.
“Everyone who tastes it will say, ‘I like this fruitcake,’“ she promises. “It always makes me sad when people say fruitcakes aren’t good. You haven’t had good fruitcake.”
Into the abyss
Never one to resist a challenge, I purchased the metric ton of fruit and nuts required for Ruth Gerringer’s holiday show-stopper — $69.92 at Food Lion — and tossed them all in our largest salad bowl.
I consider myself a competent cook, capable of a passable lasagna or chicken gumbo. But baking instructions always soar far over my head — written for the players in a higher league.
Chopping aside, this fruitcake involves very little preparation other than willingness to plunge both hands into a bowl of sticky chaos. But with that mischief managed, I shoved two trays full of Ruth’s finest into the oven at 300 degrees.
One hour and 15 minutes later, out came the holiday bounty, looking for all the world like something you’d use to patch the walls of a shed.
The taste?
I passed a slice to the teenagers on the living room sofa.
Shrugs. “Not bad.” Which qualifies as a rave review in that demographic.
I can’t really judge fairly, being sweets-averse, a fan of neither fruit nor cake. So I’ll leave the ratings to more sophisticated palates.
Like our beagle. Who gives two enthusiastic paws up.
Ruth Gerringer’s prize-winning fruitcake recipe
1.5 pounds whole candied cherries
1 pound whole candied dates
1 pound walnuts
2 14-oz. cans sweetened condensed milk
1.5 pounds candied pineapples
1 pound Brazil nuts
1 pound pecans
1 cup self-rising flour
Cut fruit and nuts in half. Add sweetened condensed milk, then flour. Mix well. Press into greased and floured tube pan or loaf pans. Bake at 300 degrees for 1.25 hours.
This story was originally published December 15, 2025 at 5:00 AM.