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From left, Ansh Patel, a third-grader at Cold Harbor Elementary; Virginia first lady Dorothy McAuliffe; Gov. Terry McAuliffe; and Taylor Coleman, a fourth-grader who is home schooled. The junior chefs helped the McAuliffes kick off the Science Museum of Virginia's annual Fruitcake Science season with a bake-off. (Photo by Craig Belcher)
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Gov. McAuliffe gets acquainted with his hand mixer. (Photo by Craig Belcher)
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Incoming first lady of Virginia Pam Northam (second from left), a former science educator also dropped by the event. At right is Science Museum of Virginia educator Laura Kramer. (Photo by Craig Belcher)
Many of us enjoy fruitcake — pounds and pounds of sugar, flour, nuts and unidentifiable fruit masquerading as dessert — about as much as we do the dental work that must surely follow. Whether a favorite holiday treat or a convenient doorstop, the fruit-and-nut bomb is just that to the minds at the Science Museum of Virginia.
For nearly 10 years the team at the museum has subjected the notorious seasonal tradition to extreme heat and cold, blown it up, and launched it from a catapult — all in the name of science.
The museum kicked off this year’s Fruitcake Science season with a special baking demonstration: With the help of two young volunteers, Virginia first lady Dorothy McAuliffe and Gov. Terry McAuliffe baked two versions of the holiday confection — the first lady’s a healthier take featuring applesauce and the governor’s a showcase for Virginia-grown products (dubbed Sic Semper Fruitcake, a nod to the governor's son, a Marine deployed in Iraq) including spices from Richmond’s C.F. Sauer Company.
Despite the governor's cry of "We're gonna win!" at the beginning of the competition, an informal survey of the audience after the bake-off found the first lady's recipe, which will be available on the Science Museum website, to be more popular. Extremely popular with the audience, composed largely of elementary schoolers from Bellevue Elementary, was when museum educators smashed fruitcakes that had been doused in liquid nitrogen with hammers.
The McAuliffes' cakes, baked in Virginia-shaped pans, are destined for the Science Museum’s fruitcake collection, which features a cake from Britain’s Buckingham Palace and a cake that visited outer space.
This year’s batch of Fruitcake Science demonstrations will take place Dec. 26-30, with times posted on the Science Museum’s website.
