In the weeks leading up to the Christmas holiday, trips to my grandmother’s house became more frequent for my mother and me. In usual childlike fashion, as my mother and grandmother chatted about the upcoming holidays or whatever this or that cousin got themselves into recently, I would venture to the fridge in search of snacks.

At this time of year, among my grandmother’s numerous expired condiments and leftovers in various stages of mummification (the Great Depression mentality was real here, y’all,) a strange dark pink concoction of various fruits and juices would appear in a large, reused pickle jar on the top shelf of her refrigerator. I remember asking my grandmother once what this gross jar contained and was met with a short answer before she returned to a conversation with my mother: “It’s the fruit for my 30-Day Cake.”

As a child (who did not really understand fermentation at the time), I often stared at the jar and was both disgusted that she planned to make a cake out of fruit that had been sitting around for a month and intrigued that it looked like something out of a mad scientist’s lab.

A 30-Day Cake, also often referred to as a Friendship Cake due to friends sharing a “starter” made from the leftover juices of a previous cake, is similar in design to the most hated (or beloved?) of Christmas desserts: the fruitcake. However, unlike the dense, brick-like fruitcake, the 30-Day Cake is usually placed in a Bundt pan instead of a loaf pan and, once baked, results in a light and airy crumb with soft pieces of sweet fruits spread throughout and just a hint of whiskey or brandy.

While this cake became one of my grandmother’s most requested desserts for our annual Christmas gathering, my aversion to it continued well into my teen years. It was not until my late teens, and after a lot of my own mental gaslighting, that I finally tasted the dessert. To my abject horror, I actually enjoyed it. Many years have now gone by without this strange dessert—years that have seen both my mother and grandmother pass away and the annual Christmas dinner our family once shared, gathered in my grandmother’s cramped kitchen, fade to nothing more than a distant memory and strained relationships.

Though I can no longer return to her house or take in the sweet smells emanating from her kitchen that I came to associate with her and the holidays, I can still hold the memories we shared as a family close as I look toward the future and begin to create new holiday traditions with my own family.

I hope that through writing this article and the associated hunt for my grandmother’s original recipe for the 30-Day Cake—her recipe box was divided among my cousins when she passed—that these conversations and rehashing of holiday stories may be the first steps at repairing the bonds and traditions we once shared. In fact, the cake could evolve from a symbol of our past to one of our future. All we need is a shared starter, a bunch of seemingly disconnected parts, and some time to come together to make something rich and deliciously strange.

Anna J. Mullican’s 30-Day Cake

Author’s notes: The text in italics did not make it onto the original written recipe.I have added these notes for clarity.

If you are starting this cake from scratch without a gifted starter, the whole process will take thirty days from start to finish. However, if you already have a starter that was gifted to you, you can move straight into the baking process.

If You Need to Make a Starter

Starter Ingredients

• 1 20-ounce can pineapple chunks
• 1 16-ounce can apricots
• 1 16-ounce can sliced peaches
• 1 10-ounce jar maraschino cherries, drained
• 1 1/4 cups whiskey or brandy
• 5 1/2 cups white sugar

Preparation

From Day 1 to Day 30, the following steps need to be followed in order. The juice must be stirred every day.

Day 1: Strain juices from the peaches and apricots into the glass container you plan to use. Chop up the peaches and apricots, and add them to the container with 1 1/2 cups white sugar and whiskey/brandy. If you want a stronger whiskey/brandy flavor, you can add more to your tastes. Cover container with thin towel or cheese cloth and seal with a rubber band. The lid can also be placed on the jar and over the towel, but very loosely as it will explode due to pressure from fermentation. Let the jar stand at room temperature out of direct sunlight. Stir every day.

On Day 10: Add pineapples (juice included) and 2 cups sugar to your container. Stir. Replace covering.

On Day 20: Add cherries (drained) and 2 cups sugar. Stir.

On Day 30: Drain all liquid from the fruit mixture and place the juice into sterilized pint jars to give away to friends/family. Should get 3–4 jars. Alternatively, while fresh is always best, you can place additional starters in freezer safe containers and freeze. As for the leftover fruit mixture, I will dice it into small pieces and add about 1 cup to the actual cake batter if I am making it fresh that day. Any remaining can be used as a dessert or ice cream topping or frozen alongside the starter juices in a separate container of about a cup each.

When You Are Ready to Bake

Cake Ingredients

• 1 pint cake starter
• 2 cups of the reserved fruit
• 8 eggs, beaten
• 1 1/3 cups vegetable oil
• 2 boxes any yellow cake mix
• 2 small boxes instant vanilla pudding
• 2 cups pecans or walnuts, chopped
• 2 cups shredded coconut
• 2 small boxes raisins
• 2 jars cream cheese frosting (or, if ambitious, make your own)

Note: This recipe makes two bundt cakes at a time. If you want to only make one, cut the cake ingredients above in half.

Preparation

Add all your dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl/container, mix all of your wet ingredients and fruit. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and combine them thoroughly. Once combined, divide the mixture into 2 bundt pans (greased and floured).

Bake at 325 degrees F for 45 minutes for small pans or 60 minutes for large pans.

Remove from the oven and let them fully cool. The cakes should be golden brown.

Once cool, add cream cheese frosting and serve.

M. Quaid Adams is an intern at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage focusing on a digital collections project for the 2023 Smithsonian Folklife Festival’s Ozarks program. He is also a PhD student in rhetoric and composition and an MA student in folklore at Indiana University Bloomington.

All photos of the cake, its recipe and development process, and of my grandmother were taken and given to me for this project by my cousin, Veronica Saylor.