The people who believe the jokes about fruitcake being hard as a rock and inedible obviously haven't tried the fruitcake from Beatrice Bakery in Nebraska. These cakes are moist, dense, packed with fruit and nuts, and famous worldwide. They're so delicious you'll never make another fruitcake joke again.

The Beatrice Bakery has been around in one form or another since 1917. That's when two brothers who owned a bakery came across their German grandmother's fruitcake recipe. They knew they'd stumbled onto something fantastic.

Since then, the business has changed hands -and names - a few times, but Grandma's Fruit and Nut Cake has remained the keystone product. After being locally owned for 40 years, the bakery was nationally owned for more than three decades. It's now proudly back in the hands of Nebraskans.

The bakery does most of its business in the last few months of the year. The fruitcake is closely associated with the winter holidays, so that makes sense.

But the process of making the beloved fruitcakes starts way before the holidays. One of the things that sets Grandma's Fruit and Nut Cake apart is its careful construction.

Only the finest and freshest ingredients are used, and bakery staff hand-decorate the cakes for that extra dose of love. After the cakes are baked, decorated, and packaged, they're allowed to age for a full 90 days.

This process allows the brandy flavor to meld with the flavors of fruit and nuts, creating an irresistible treat. Even if you thought you hated fruitcake, one bite of this succulent cake will convince you otherwise. It's been called the world's finest, and it's been featured on TV shows, in magazines, and even on home shopping channel QVC.

Around the busy season, the bakery produces three TONS of fruitcake batter. Each batch takes 72 pounds of flour, 35 pounds of sugar, more than 180 pounds of fruit, and lots of other ingredients that make this cake so popular.

The fruitcakes are made using a secret slow-baking method. But the ingredients are probably what makes Grandma's so different from other fruitcakes. The grocery-store versions use cheap, fake ingredients, but Grandma's uses plump fruit that provides just the right texture to offset the crunchy nuts.

For quite a while, you could buy your fruitcakes in the bakery's office or order them over the phone or online. But the business now has a storefront just up the street from the bakery, and we highly recommend dropping in for a treat.

The bakery has some innovative desserts made using the fruitcake, like these fruitcake slices. There are also chocolate-covered fruitcake squares.

While the fruit and nut cakes are far and away the most popular item here, Beatrice Bakery also offers other delicious sweet things. Choose from a selection of breakfast breads and several types of cakes. Do yourself a favor and order the amaretto liqueur cake. It's heavenly!

There's no need to wait until the holidays to enjoy Grandma's Fruit and Nut Cake. It's delicious as a snack or dessert any time of the year.

Try it with a cup of fresh coffee in the morning for a unique treat. We're pretty sure it counts as a healthy breakfast...it's got fruit and nuts, right?

The folks at Beatrice Bakery say that once you try their fruitcakes you'll agree that they're the best in the world.

But the silly fruitcake aversion is hard to overcome, and most people insist that they hate fruitcake. So the same bakery folks go to food shows and other events to give out free samples. Once people take that first bite, they understand what a difference those premium ingredients and closely-guarded baking method make.

Find the world's best fruitcake online at Beatrice Bakery's website or visit the bakery on Facebook, or stop in at the address below. This locally-owned, globally-famous bakery really does bake the best fruitcake in the world...or at least outside of Germany. Have you ever tried Grandma's Fruit and Nut Cake or any of the bakery's other offerings? If so, let us know in the comments what you thought of it!

If you need to walk off some of those cake calories, Beatrice is home to the beautiful Chief Standing Bear Trail. It's a perfect way to spend an afternoon in the cute little town.