Fruitcake Catapault

I suppose if you need a reason to build a catapault, which I don't think you do, this is a great excuse.

I'm told that Fairmont, Minnesota (down near the Iowa border) is holding a Fruitcake Launching Event, in which fruitcakes are shot out of catapults and other machines.

From Notes From the Technology Underground.

Taking a look around I found a Fruitcake Trebuchet and a site with history of Fruitcake and some witty discriptions.

Food scholars date fruitcake back to ancient Egypt and the Roman Empire. According to some historians, Egyptian fruitcake was considered an essential food for the afterlife and there are those today who maintain that this is the only thing they are good for. In ancient Rome, raisins, pine nuts and pomegranate seeds were added to barley mash, making the fruitcake not only handy and lethal catapult ammunition, but also hearty compact foodstuff for the long campaigns waged by the conquering Roman legions.

And

For most people, fruitcake conjures up an image of a comestible that is hard as a rock, easier to cut with a welding torch than a knife and is almost always associated with the holiday season. There seems no sympathy for its fate; not even Spam goes through what the venerable fruitcake does. Its durability seems due at least in part to its legendary ability to remain edible for weeks or months (or even years or centuries, if my opening theory is correct).

All quite funny really. Though I must say my mother makes pretty good fruitcake, and I'm not really fond of it.