Beatrice, Nebraska – For 100 years consumers have been confident when purchasing Grandma’s Fruit & Nut Cake, they will receive the same quality of taste and texture in each fruitcake. Stories have been passed on to manufacturer Beatrice Bakery Company from many generations of families that they consider this cake as one of their favorite holiday traditions. A statement not many companies or products can boast!
The history of making Grandma’s Fruitcake dates back to 1917! The Lantz Brothers, two German immigrants who operated a bakery in St. Louis, MO, while rummaging through an old family trunk ran across their Grandmother’s favorite fruitcake recipe. She noted – ‘Use only the freshest ingredients!’ Her recipe called for a combination of ripe fancy cherries, fresh succulent pineapples, plump raisins, crunchy almonds, walnuts, seedling pecans and just the right amount of bourbon, rum and brandy! The brothers soon discovered that the slow bake which includes a secret process, plus allowing cakes to mellow to perfection, were also ingredients that made their Grandma’s recipe so special. In the early 1960’s the Lantz brother’s cake became so popular that they began a search for a manufacturing facility that could produce larger quantities of their world’s finest fruitcake! Their search was answered in a bread company in Beatrice, Nebraska.
The Lantz Brothers worked with the Beatrice master bakers to confirm that their grandmother’s recipe would be maintained with the quality in ingredients and secret baking method. The once only bread manufacturing facility grew the popularity of the Grandma’s Fruitcake so much that they soon only produced fruitcake. And, after several years of being owned by various large bread manufacturers, the management decided to close the doors. But, it only took 4 months for local investors, to see the importance of maintaining production of this family fruitcake. On April 22, 2002, they formed a corporation, re-opened the facility, reinstated 40+ jobs in the local community, and established Beatrice Bakery Company®.
Today, the baking with that original fruitcake recipe lives on! Besides their holiday line of Grandma’s® Fruit & Nut cakes; they hand produce shelf-stable year-round baked goods from coffee cakes, to dessert liqueur cakes to artisan cakes. Their holiday fruitcake is now available if various flavors—original, chocolate, no sugar added, kosher and NEW FOR 2017 will be introduction a NO High Fructose Corn Syrup cake. This “hands-on” bakery has a history of making 1.2 million pounds of cake a year!
Beatrice Bakery Co. is FDA and State inspected, and the staff is very proud of the fact that they have received 25+ consecutive years of Superior ratings from plant inspections by the American Institute of Baking. The bakery is currently working towards SQF Level 3 Certification, one of the industry’s most stringent food safety and quality guidelines.
Beatrice Bakery Company’s product lines can be found in grocery and retail stores, plus catalog and internet venues throughout the US, Canada and Puerto Rico; and on military bases all over the world. Check out their entire offerings at www.beatricebakery.com!
Source: Beatrice Bakery Co.
