Even if you don’t love the holidays, you likely appreciate the food. All of us have our favorites, from stuffing and mashed potatoes to latkes and kugel, but the real fun begins with dessert. If you’ve ever wondered why we eat cakes shaped like Yule logs or who first came up with fruitcake, read on — these are the origins of four favorite holiday treats.
Figgy Pudding
Even if you've never tried this dessert, you're probably familiar with the lyric "now bring us some figgy pudding" from "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." While that song possibly dates to the 16th century, figgy pudding itself is at least two centuries older than that. In the 14th century, it was used as a food-preservation technique and resembled a porridge consisting of beef, mutton, wines, spices, raisins, and prunes. It wasn't until the 1700s, when fruit was more widely available, that figgy pudding became sweet, rather than savory, and much more similar to what we eat today.
You might notice one ingredient conspicuously missing from the original recipe: actual figs. We have the vagaries of Middle English to thank for that, as the word "figgy" (or fygey, ffygey, figgee, and several other spellings) didn't necessarily imply the use of figs, and its meaning changed along with the various recipes.
Sufganiyot
Whether you call it a Hanukkah doughnut or sufganiyot, this deep-fried treat filled with jelly and covered in powdered sugar is delicious in any language. And just as Jews eat matzah and other unleavened breads during Passover, there's a reason fried foods like sufganiyot are served during Hanukkah: Doing so commemorates the miracle of the oil. This is among the oldest culinary customs of them all, as eating deep-fried pastries during Hanukkah was already considered a long-standing tradition in the 12th century.
As for the name, an Israeli folk tale suggests that God gave Adam and Eve sufganiyot to make them feel better after their exile from the Garden of Eden; this interpretation is rooted in the fact that sufganiyah reads similarly to sof-gan-yud-hey, or "the end of the Garden of the Lord."
Fruitcake
Whatever your thoughts on fruit-based desserts, there's no denying that the love-it-or-hate-it mainstay fruitcake remains popular worldwide. (For another fruit-centric argument, be sure to ask your loved ones their thoughts on pineapple pizza.) All roads lead to Rome, and so does this particular dish's history: An early (we're talking 2,000-year-old) variant is said to have included raisins, pomegranate seeds, and pine nuts, but it wasn’t until the Middle Ages that other dried fruits, nuts, and honey were added to the mix.
Yule Log
It won't surprise you to learn that this Christmas cake is popular in countries such as Belgium and Switzerland, but did you know that Yule logs are also served in Lebanon and Vietnam? Made to look like, well, a Yule log, this genoise-based sponge cake first became popular in 19th-century France — hence its enduring popularity in Vietnam, a former French colony, as well as its original name, Bûche de Noël.
The ingredients — marzipan, meringue, spun sugar, and sponge cake — suggest that this dessert could have been around since the 1600s. Real Yule logs would traditionally be burned starting on Christmas Eve as a symbol of the new year — and, if they worked as intended, bring good luck. However, the cake version has been a more recognizable holiday symbol than its namesake for quite some time.