Christmas Fruit Cake

A rich, fruit packed, brandy soaked cake. Moist and full of flavour! Great for Christmas or for a wedding cake

Course Dessert

Cuisine British

Keyword Cake, christmas

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 3 30

Total Time 4

Servings

Calories 440kcal

Author thebakingexplorer

Ingredients

For the cake

850 g Mixed dried fruit I used sultanas, raisins, cranberries, apricots and mixed peel
100 ml Brandy
1 tbsp Cointreau optional, or replace with same amount of brandy
1 tbsp Kirsch optional, or replace with same amount of brandy
235 g Butter or baking spread softened, unsalted
235 g Dark brown soft sugar
4 Eggs large
1 tsp Vanilla extract
235 g Plain flour
100 g Ground almonds
½ tsp Baking powder
1 ½ tsp Mixed spice
½ tsp Cinnamon
¼ tsp Ground cloves
¼ tsp Nutmeg
100 g Glace cherries chopped up

For after baking

2 tbsp Brandy

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Put all of your dried fruit in a large mixing bowl (you don't have to add the mixed peel, but if you're using a bag of mixed fruit with it in, you don't have to separate it) add the brandy, kirsch and cointreau (or other alcohol of your choice) and mix in. Cover the bowl and leave overnight, or for 24 hours
Pre-heat your oven to 120C Fan/275F/Gas Mark 1, and grease and double line a 8" cake tin that is at least 3" deep
To make the cake, mix the butter or baking spread and dark brown soft sugar together in a mixing bowl until fluffy (around 3 minutes), ideally using an electric mixer. Or mix in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment
Add the eggs and vanilla extract, and mix until fully incorporated
Add the plain flour, ground almonds, baking powder, mixed spice, cinnamon, nutmeg and ground cloves, and whisk or fold in gently
Finally, add the soaked dried fruit and glace cherries, and fold in until evenly distributed
Pour the cake batter into the tin and smooth out the batter into an even layer
Bake for 3 ½ hours or until a thin skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. When the cake comes out of the oven, poke it all over with a thin skewer, and drizzle over the extra brandy. Leave the cake to fully cool in the tin
Wrap the cake in baking paper and foil, put in a cake tin or a tupperware container, open it up every 1-2 weeks and feed with 1 tbsp brandy in the run up to Christmas

Video

Notes

Make sure all your ingredients (particularly the butter and eggs) are at room temperature before you start baking.
I used dark brown soft sugar for this cake, as it helps to give it that rich caramel colour and flavour. You can also use light brown soft sugar, or a dark muscovado sugar. If you use a white sugar like caster sugar, your cake will be a lot lighter in colour, and not have that richer caramel flavour. You can combat this by adding some black treacle.
For soaking the fruit, I used brandy, cointreau and kirsch for a divine mix of flavour. You can use any alcohol you prefer. Sherry is a popular choice, as are whisky and dark rum. If you don't want to use alcohol, then soak in cold tea instead. You can also use fruit juice, but bare in mind that this will shorten the shelf life of your cake.
You can also customise the fruit you add to this cake. I used a mix of sultanas, raisins, cranberries, apricots and mixed peel. If you don't like mixed peel, leave it out and just add more of the fruit you do like so the weight is the same.
Mixed spice is a British spice blend containing cinnamon, coriander seed, nutmeg, clove, pimento, and ground ginger. If you can't get hold of it where you're based, you can use a Pumpkin Spice mix instead or add extra cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and ground cloves.
Although I provide cup measurements, I highly recommend weighing your ingredients out using digital kitchen scales. It is the most accurate way to measure ingredients and will ensure the best results. Digital scales are very low cost and can be purchased for around £12 ($16.50).
For teaspoon (tsp) and tablespoon (tbsp) measurements, please use measuring spoons and not the type of spoons you eat with. Again this will ensure accuracy and provide the best results.

Nutrition