Name: Christmas Fruit Cake
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 2 h 30 min
Total time: 2 h 45 min
Yield: 12
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 5 cups or 700 g mix dried fruit; 1/2 cup or 150 ml brandy, plus extra for feeding *** You can also use whisky, dark rum etc.; Zest and juice of 2 oranges and 2 lemons; 1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons or 250 g butter, room temperature; 3/4 cup or 150 g light brown sugar; 2 tsp vanilla essence; 4 eggs; 1 cup or 200 g all purpose flour; 2 tsp mixed spice or pumpkin spice; 1 cup or 100 g sliced almonds, slivered; 5 cups or 700g Mixed dried fruit

Christmas Fruit Cake. This is a wonderful recipe and easy too! Now is the time to make a start on your Christmas cake! Options to add traditional brandy to make it even more luxurious!

Christmas Fruit Cake!
It's always nice to find an easy recipe to make this wonderful cake.

If you're using alcohol, then it's a good idea to start making your cake in September time, allowing for the alcohol to soak into the cake gradually.
Here, Adelenne shows us how to make her popular cake, often she makes several for friends too as it's so popular!
During the months leading up to Christmas, you can 'feed' the cake at weekly intervals with alcohol and then in December, you can decorate it with marzipan and icing and have a truly wonderful Christmas cake ready for cutting on the big day.
You can of course make this cake any time of the year and just enjoy it simply as a fruit cake. Whatever and whenever you decide, it will be wonderful!

We've also got a wonderful Cranberry and Pecan Christmas Cake with marzipan and royal icing if you'd like to make something a little fancier!

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We've got lots of Christmas recipes so be sure to check them out!

Recipe by Adelenne Lee

Table of Contents 📋 hide

7) How to store a Christmas Fruit Cake

8) How to feed the Christmas cake

9) Recipe Card

10) Christmas Fruit Cake

11) Fruitcake Recipes

Prep Time

15 minutes

Cook Time

Approx 2 ½ hrs

Yield

12 Persons

You will need

8 inch (20 cm) round or square baking pan

Ingredients

5 cups or 700 g mix dried fruit **See below
½ cup or 150 ml brandy, plus extra for feeding *** You can also use whisky, dark rum etc.
Zest and juice of 2 oranges and 2 lemons
1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons or 250 g butter, room temperature
¾ cup or 150 g light brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla essence
4 eggs
1 cup or 200 g all purpose flour
2 tsp mixed spice or pumpkin spice
1 cup or 100 g sliced almonds (slivered)

5 cups or 700g Mixed dried fruit

Please ensure the TOTAL amount of this combination equals 5 CUPS / 700 g.You can use a combination of fruits such as those below;
candied cherries
candied mixed citrus peel
raisins
currants
dates, pitted and chopped

Instructions

Chop the mixed fruits if not already chopped into small pieces like the photo. Soak dried fruits with brandy, juices and zests of oranges and lemons overnight.

2. Grease and line a deep 20 cm (8 inch) tin.
3. Preheat oven to 160 C/ 310 F
4. Beat butter, sugar, and vanilla till creamy, then beat in eggs one at a time. Tip in the flour, mixed spice, soaked fruits, and liquids if any, and sliced almonds.
5. Mix well and pour into the cake tin. Using the back of a spoon, make a slight dent in the middle of the mixture.
6. Bake for 1 ½ hrs. Reduce oven to 140 C/ 275 F and loosely cover the top of the cake with a double sheet of tin foil and bake for another 45 mins-1hr or until a skewer comes out clean.
Cool in the tin before lifting out. Cake can be stored for up to 6 months keeping it wrapped in greaseproof or parchment paper.

How to store a Christmas Fruit Cake

To store the cake you can wrap it in parchment paper, then foil, have the seams facing up, then place the whole cake in a Tupperware box. Store at normal room temperature out of the direct sun.

How to feed the Christmas cake

When you feed the cake each week, you just remove the lid, unfold the foil and parchment enough to dribble the alcohol on the cake then wrap up again, without having to take the cake out of the box.

Open cake to feed every week or two by poking with a skewer in several places and dribbling with your choice of alcohol or tea. You can feed as much or little as you like. A guide is half a cap full (the cap from the alcohol bottle) distributed evenly on the cake top. It will soak in!

We'd love to hear from you and what you thought of our recipe. Did you make any changes or add some other ingredients? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for reading and happy cooking!

Recipe Card