GuestShimrod, the point of fruitcake goes back to the time when there were no supermarkets, freezers, or refrigerators. Fruit was dried if it could not be stored in, say, a cool cellar. Sugar was not so common in the diet, and spices weren't commonplace and had to be pounded into a powder before you could mix them into the cake. Back then, fruitcake had a lot of saved-up-for, hard to get goodies in it, so it was a special treat. and they didn't have those over-dyed squares of "citron".
Myself, I use the family recipe for the batter, and pile in all variety of chopped nuts and fruit (dried and otherwise). Yum.       Sometimes I bake the cake without any fruit or nuts, call it spice cake, and watch it fly off the plate when my friends stop by.