"I love fruitcake." reports Mark Stephens of Dexter's Brewster Inn, "I don't know why American's seem to find something funny about fruitcake. In Britain we take our fruitcake very serious."

Research on the Internet reveals that somewhere in the recent past a long-standing holiday tradition of baking and enjoying fruitcake was transformed into a joke. Fruitcake lovers have been outcast, rejected and ridiculed by popular culture. Fruitcake's reputation reached an all time low in the early 1990's when Johnny Carson kidded "there's only one fruitcake in the U.S., and it's passed around year after year from family to family." Each year a fruitcake toss is held in Colorado Springs.

Participants are invited to throw, use a golf club, or utilize a mechanical device to send fruitcakes flying through the air. There is even a fruitcake recycling site.

All jokes aside, fruitcake has taken a bad rap in recent years. Many fruitcake fanciers have gone underground. Despite public perception, the fruitcake industry is thriving, with millions of pounds sold commericially around the world each year.

According to the contest rules all fruitcakes must be homemade. The cakes can either be made following a family recipe or a recipe from a library cookbook. Each fruitcake must be accompanied with a printed copy of the full recipe. The cakes will be judged on taste, texture, and presentation.

Contestants must pre-register in person at the library in Dexter by December 6th.