Show unwraps fruitcakes made in Beatrice

Comedians like to kick around fruitcake.

But plenty of people still consider them a holiday-season must.

Those fruitcake fans are in for a treat this week, when a Nebraska company renowned for its fruit-and-nut confections will be featured on “Unwrapped,” a popular show on cable TV’s Food Network. The show goes behind the scenes to reveal how some of our favorite foods are produced.

The show featuring Grandma’s Fruitcake, produced at the Beatrice Bakery Co. in Beatrice, Neb., premieres at 9 p.m Friday. The Food Network is on basic Channel 54 and high-definition Channel 776 on Cox Communications’ cable system in Omaha.

Rebecca Brown, the bakery’s sales and marketing manager, anticipates a five-minute segment about Grandma’s Fruitcakes. But she hasn’t seen an advance showing.

“Unwrapped” producers sent a film crew there in September.

“We are anticipating the airing of it, like everyone else,” Brown said. “We didn’t ask for it or pay to be on the show. We think we are very representative of fruitcake and what a Nebraska business can do.”

She’s heard that the show will highlight 11 more holiday treats, including candy canes, sparkling wine, pumpkin pie and honey ham.

Producers say products featured on “Unwrapped” experience increased sales. Brown hopes that’s the case. She also hopes the show increases awareness for the bakery in the Beatrice area and opens markets for its other styles of cake.

The two-person film crew from “Unwrapped” watched as workers prepared fruitcakes, step by step.

“They really enjoyed our company because the majority of the companies they go to are all mechanized and ours is hands-on,” Brown said.

Here’s the process, all by hand:

Ÿ Measure ingredients.

Ÿ Place ingredients in a mixer.

Ÿ Weigh and pat dough in pans.

Ÿ Garnish cakes with fruits and nuts.

Ÿ Transfer cakes to ovens.

Ÿ Remove cakes from pans.

Ÿ Place cakes in decorative

tins or boxes.

That’s pretty labor intensive. So the bakery’s 43-member production staff starts the day at 8 a.m. with calisthenics, Brown said — a practice that surprised the film crew.

But those exercises and rotating jobs every 30 minutes help the workers avoid repetitive- motion injuries, she said.

Filming didn’t disrupt the workers. The bakery makes about 5,000 to 7,000 pounds of cake a day. Even with a 30- minute break for lunch, the filming was done by 1:30 p.m.

Brown predicted that viewers would see Millard South High School graduate Robin Dickinson talking about how fruitcake is made and acting CEO Greg Leech, a native of Sidney, Iowa, talking about the bakery’s history. Both Dickinson and Leech have been with the bakery for 30 years.

The show is scheduled to be rebroadcast at noon and 3 p.m. Saturday.

Contact the writer:

444-1052, jane.palmer@owh.com

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