Some scenes from Calvary's World Famous Fruitcake Project
Calvary Episcopal Church, Rochester, MN



roasters One stage of the cooking of the cakes involves steaming them in roasters, on permanent loan from the women of the parish, some long-since deceased. The roasters are set up on saw-horse tables lining the main hall of the parish office building. Each one is labelled with the name of its owner. "Betty" is in the foreground of this picture, followed by "Irene," "Carol", "Judd" and "Eleanor."





The 50 weeks of the year they are not in use for baking fruitcakes, the roasters are stored in this custom-built shelving unit beneath the church itself. Any resemblance to a columbarium is accidental, I'm sure.






decorating cakes

roaster roost
After the cakes have cooled, they are decorated with candied cherries, applied by experienced artisans. Yes, those are surgical scrub bonnets on their heads. This is, after all, the church right across the street from the Mayo Clinic. Some of the women wear the matching footies (none in this photo, alas).....








finished cakes

Just a few of the finished products. Some of the 1-lb. cakes (foreground) and 1-1/2 lb. cakes (left rear). (Or they could be 1-1/2 and 2 lb. cakes—it's hard to tell.) In total, the Calvary Episcopal Church Women bake 2,000 lbs. of fruitcake each October. Monies raised (over $7000 profit each year) help support the parish operating and outreach budgets and various other projects sponsored by the Women. The Fruitcake Project started in the 1930s. Preparation starts in July each year; cakes are baked in October, and shipped round the world in November and December. Order here.