Gladys' Bakery
Weimar, TX
91% love this shop
Home of the World's Largest Fruitcake
Gladys' Bakery opened in 1972 in a rural Texas hamlet 100 miles from both San Antonio and Houston. Founder Gladys Farek, a mother of 6 girls, was looking for a creative outlet and boy did she ever find it. Gladys began baking bread, cookies and pies, however it was when she made her first fruitcake that a legend was born. Her Czech style fruitcakes were loaded with fresh Texas pecans (none of the usual raisins, dates or spices) and just enough batter to hold it together. Initially she mixed everything by hand, however within a year business had grown to the point of needing a cement mixer to mix the huge quantity of batter she churned through each day. It wasn't long before Gladys received national attention, thanks to an interview on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and a world record, 150 lb., fruitcake in the shape of Gladys' home state. Decades later, Gladys' Bakery is still Texas Proud and producing a fruitcake unlike any other.
