The fruitcakes symbolize Buddy's older and distant cousin, as she initiates the project of making thirty pies and sending them out as gifts to everyone in the community, a project she shares with Buddy and their little rat terrier Queenie.

The fruitcakes function as a symbol on two levels. First, "fruitcake" is a word that means crazy. This points to how cracked or crazy the cousin's scheme seems—and towards the way the other adult relatives in the house regard her as irresponsible and as "loony." The baking of the fruitcakes symbolizes how she looks at the world through a different lens and with a childlike trust and generosity.

Fruitcakes are also a rich and varied dessert, with much inside. This also symbolizes Buddy's cousin. She may behave oddly or seem nutty on the outside, but she has hidden depths to her soul that it takes a child like Buddy to appreciate. To dismiss her merely as a fruitcake or crazy because of her outward appearance is to miss all she has to offer.

Fruitcakes are also a traditional Christmas food, and this helps tie Buddy's cousin to the spirit of Christmas, which animates her: she is a giving, loving person who wants to help others.