That's just a rumour put out by the commercial Stollen .. uhh.. farms? To prevent the spread of yummy home made baked goods.

Panettone is where it's at. Miles better than Stollen or other festive concoctions. Coincidentally, just purchased a big one and little one today.

I was unfamiliar with that until now. Google tells me I may need to try one.

My Gran used to make great fruit cakes ( not the gelatinous crap called "fruit cake" here). Gran rocked.

If stollen is even half as good as you would have us believe, I would strongly recommend against having anything to do with panettone, as indeed I already did, above. ..... It has the consistency of a dry bread with a few bits of dried fruit scattered through it, and as a connoisseur of fruit cake I can assure you it falls a long way short of the mark.
My mother still does.

Fruit cake should have lots of fruit and just enough cake to fill in the gaps. Not the other way around. Then a good layer of marzipan, then just a sufficiency of icing that isn't so hard that a trip to the dentist ensues.

Excellent taste lizzyq

I agree about the fruit to cake ratio but...leave it plain. No marzipan, no icing. Just good old fashioned heavy, moist fruit cake.

Wouldn't that just be a pudding? Minus several gallons of brandy of course.

Nope. It is cake

Don't forget to soak the fruit in brandy, rum or another booze for a few days before mixing, and after it's been baked, before putting marzipan on, poke some holes in it with a skewer and drop more booze down the holes. Add a teaspoon of glycerin to the royal icing, and it won't become too hard. I usually make a Christmas cake most years, but not this year. I'm partial to (good)Christmas cake, like Nutek is to Stollen.

FIFY

That's exactly how my mother makes them. She has done them with marzipan and hard icing, but all I need is a naked cake to keep me happy.

Gran-approved.

You are quite right about fruit cake, I should have said "Christmas cake should be made from a fruit cake......."