The fruitcake was invented on the slopes of Mt. Tamalpais some 150 years ago. A Miwok woman left her ground acorn mixed with local berries and fruit in the sun, and came back to find a congealed, well, brick. She attempted to serve it to her family, but as hard as she tried, she couldn't slice the loaf. So the woman left her failed cooking experiment at the campsite of white men who had come to the mountain to hunt. As it so happened, it was Christmas Eve, and the hunters were delighted to discover a festive looking cake by the fire. Alas, they couldn't cut into it either, but did find it to be an extremely effective weapon when they ran out of ammunition.
Well, Mt. Tamalpais did inspire the invention of the mountain bike, and you should be happy about that. You may also be happy about this--the first fruitcake was allegedly created in ancient Egypt. (Which begs the question--was it really an asp that poisoned Cleopatra?) And as it made its many rounds, that fruitcake recipe continued to change, and when it finally settled in America, it started to become something else altogether. Indeed, some believe it was Johnny Carson himself who started making the fruitcake the butt of many jokes by famously saying that there was only one in the world, passed from person to person.
And that's where Dr. Elmo of Marin County comes in--you know, the guy who made "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" famous. Dr. Elmo co-wrote a song called "Grandma's Killer Fruitcake." (Yes, it's also on YouTube.) Anyway, funny stuff.
Now back to those hunters on Mt. Tam. One of them could very well have been William Richardson, who founded Sausalito. According to sources, he went to Mt. Tam in the 1840s to hunt bear for his Christmas dinner. So go figure--now bears are extinct in Marin, and that old fruitcake is still around.
Merry Holidays and Happy Christmas.
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