Best Fruitcake In The Bay Area

Schubert's Bakery
521 Clement St.
San Francisco, CA 94118
(415) 752-1580
www.schuberts-bakery.com

Tiramisu, mango mousse and Swedish princess cake ... you name it. The highest quality crafted cakes have been produced by this Bay Area landmark since 1911. Order beautifully decorated cakes ahead of time, up to the mega-sized 18" x 36" to serve 75 to 100. Their German-inspired traditional fruit cake is a seasonal selection that comes highly recommended. With always friendly staff behind the counter, they've been serving generations of loyal customers from local families for generations.

It's not everybody who gets their fruitcake described by the New York Times as "An elegant organic one-pound fruit cake, perfumed with port and brandy." Stoned fruit preserved from summer harvests includes Bing cherries, apricots and plums before she gets to the autumn candied citrus peel. A private reserve port from Alameda-based St. George Spirits is the booze of choice. In addition to Berkeley and other Bay Area locations seen on the website, June Taylor is also at an outdoor stall at the Ferry Plaza farmers market (near the Gandhi statue) on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Robert Lambert Fruitcake, aged one year, in both dark and white, is available at Draeger's four Bay Area locations or via online orders at Bi-Rite. Robert can often be found in person at the farmers markets at Grand Lake, Oakland on Saturdays and at San Rafael Civic Center on Sundays. Grandma's recipe features cherries, pineapple, Brazil nuts, local pecans, walnuts and whole blanched toasted almonds. Don't overlook handpicked candied young ginger, bergamot, Rangpur lime, Meyer lemon and blood orange peels. There's more...every cake is soaked in French Cognac before being topped with a California bay leaf and a candied white grapefruit peel star. It's wrapped in cheesecloth dipped in booze. Delivery by Instacart? Of course.

Frog Hollow Farm At The Ferry Building
Store #46, One Ferry Building
The Embarcadero
San Francisco, CA 94111
(415) 445-0990
www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com

Direct from Brentwood in Contra Costa County, one of the Bay Area's best-loved fruitcakes is produced weekly in small batches at family-run Al Courchesne's 120-acre CCOF-certified organic farm. Some say the moist, walnut-rich fruit cake filled with organic dried peaches, orange peels and cherries sourced at the farm and soaked in rum is the best you'll ever find. In this variation on the traditional loaf, Chef Becky Courchesne's presentation is round, packaged in a reusable tin.

Described as a brandy-soaked customer favorite, the dark molasses-coated spice cake recipe contains dried almonds, pineapple, papaya, cherry and other dried fruits. The worker-owned cooperative has six Bay Area locations. Find them in Berkeley, Oakland and Emeryville in the East Bay; San Rafael in North Bay; plus two San Francisco bakeries in the Inner Sunset and in the Mission District.