Traditional Fruit Cake Recipe (2024)

Fruit cake, is a traditional Christmas cake recipe which is made authentic style with dried fruits soaked in alcohol. This fruit cake is made with dried fruits, butter, sugar, eggs and flour & spices made traditional way. Christmas Fruit Cake which is made the traditional way with rum and caramel and this is one of my favorite and it turns out to be so moist. Don't have time to soak dry fruits, then try my no soak-no alcohol plum cake recipe. Learn how to make fruit cake with step by step pictures, detailed instructions and video.

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Fruit Cake

Even though I have three variation of plum cake recipe in my blog. My viewers have been asking for the traditional fruit cake which has rum in it. So I decided to bake it this year and share it. I made it couple days back and i am telling you it turned out to be super yummy and loved it to the core.

When I baked this, the house was filled with the aroma of the rich dry fruits and it was totally heavenly. Loved it so much i couldn't resist smelling it.

About Fruit Cake

Traditional fruit cake is baked many months ahead of Christmas. The cake is feed with more alcohol every week and let to mature. The matured cake is decorated on Christmas day sliced and served.

Traditionally more than a kilo of dried fruits is used in the making of one fruit cake. The Christmas cake doesn't have any raising agent instead eggs are used. The proportion to dried fruits to flour makes the cake a little dense and pudding like. Also this cake is baked low and slow for many hours. This is how they bake Christmas fruit cake during the victorian era.

These many days I thought that the plum cake which is sold in shops has cocoa powder in it from the dark colour. But recently I discovered that the colour comes from the dark caramel and not from the cocoa. Making the caramel is crucial, because it can get burned quite easily and the cake colour depends on it. Talking about caramel, check my caramel fruit cake.

Similar Recipes,

Chocolate plum cake, White fruit cake, Christmas Pudding, Rum Raisan Cake, Rum Fruit Cake

Watch Fruit Cake Recipe Video (small batch)

Fruit Cake Ingredients

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Plain Flour - for best tasting fruit cake, use plain flour which results in tender yet moist fruit cake. If you want fruit cake made with wheat flour, check this whole wheat fruit cake recipe.

Sugar - sugar is used in caramel as well as in the cake batter. I used refined white sugar in this recipe.

Eggs - eggs is essential for making the cake soft and tender. You can check my eggless fruit cake for vegetarian option.

Butter - use soft butter which helps with the moistness of the cake. You can use salted or unsalted butter. If you are using salted butter, skip adding salt.

Raising Agent - you need both baking soda and baking powder for making the cake soft.

Dry Fruits - you can use any variety of dry fruits in this cake. I used a combination of raisins, dates, apricots, kishmish, prunes. Chop dry fruits finely and soak them in rum for few weeks. This makes the dry fruits soft and gives the unique aroma to the cake.

Nuts - You can add cashews, almonds and walnuts in the fruit cake. Don't soak them in rum, add them in the batter.

Spice Powders - ground spices like cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom and ginger are the basic spices that goes in a fruit cake.

Dried Fruits Used for Fruit Cake

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Soaking dry fruits has been celebrated as a huge tradition in almost all countries. Dry fruits are soaked for all most a year prior. Liquor like rum, brandy, red wine is used for soaking of fruits. If you don't want to use alcohol you can use orange juice for soaking.

I soaked the dry fruits for 2 days, by which time the fruits soaked up the rum and was beautifully soft and plumped up. You can soak them for 1 week to 2 months. I added 1 cup of dark rum, you can increase it or decrease as you like. If you don't want to use rum, just soak the dry fruits in orange juice. Instead of rum you can use brandy or red wine as well.

You can check my No Soak Fruit Cake Recipe. Learn More about this Process. How to Soak Dried Fruits for Christmas

• 1 ½ cup seedless black raisins
• ¾ cup dates chopped finely
• ¼ cup apricot chopped finely
• ½ cup prunes chopped finely
• ¼ cup candied cherries chopped finely
• ½ cup kishmish / sultanas
• 1 cup dark rum

You can also use currants, candied orange peel, candied ginger, orange zest and lemon zest.

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Expert Tips

• If you don't want to soak the fruit cake or forgot to soak the fruit cake a day in advance. You can mix the fruit cake with the remaining ingredients add 200 ML of rum and mix it well and bake.
• Dried fruits can be soaked a week in prior.
• You can add as much liquor as you like in this cake.
• Dried fruits quantity can be increased or decreased as per your preferences.

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How to Make Christmas Fruit Cake (6 easy steps)

Pre Preparation

Take two 20 cm round cake pan. Line the base with parchment paper. Line the sides with parchment paper if needed. Preheat oven to 180 degree C.

Soaking Dried Fruits in Liquour

Take all dried fruits in a bowl, Add in rum and mix well. Leave it to soak over night or two months. .

Make Caramel

Take sugar in a sauce pan and cook till it is golden brown. Swirl the pan so the caramel is smooth. Pour in ¼ cup water and mix till the caramel is smooth. Set aside to cool.

Dry Ingredients

In a mixing bowl, take flour, add salt and all the spice powders and mix well. This is your dry ingredients. Set aside.

Fruit Cake Batter

Take butter, sugar and vanilla in a bowl and cream well. Add eggs and mix well. Add in half of the flour and half of caramel. Fold gently. Add remaining flour and remaining caramel and fold gently. Add soaked fruits and nuts mix well. Now spoon this in your prepared baking pan and bake in the oven.

Baking of Fruit Cake

Bake the cake. Once the time is up, remove the cake from oven and check whether it is baked. You can insert a tooth pick to check whether it comes out clean. If it comes out clean then the cake is baked. The cake will be slightly springy to touch.

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Feeding the Fruit Cake (optional)

Remove the cake from oven and use a tooth pick to prick holes all over the cake.. Pour 100 ml brandy or rum over the cake while it is still hot. Leave it to cool completely.

Maturing Fruit Cake (optional)

Unwrap the cake and serve immediately or wrap the cake for Christmas. (See below, how to feed the cake)

Similar Recipes,

• Eggless White Fruit cake Recipe
• Rum Fruit Cake
• Fruit cake brownies
• Non Alcoholic Fruit Cake
• Chocolate Fruit cake
• Eggless Fruit Cake
• Christmas Tree Brownies
• Fruit cake cookies

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Feeding Christmas Cake & Maturing

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You can bake this cake 2 to 3 months in advance. If you are doing that way. You have to feed the cake every week until Christmas to make the perfect Christmas fruit cake. Follow the below step.

• Once the cake is baked and cooled completely. Remove from the tin. Wrap it in fresh piece of parchment paper and extra sheets of aluminium foil. Store it in a container at room temp.
• Every week remove the cake and use 50 ml of rum of brandy and brush this all over the cake generously. Wrap again and store.
• Repeat this process every week until Christmas.
• You can bake this cake 2 to 3 months in advance.
• This process will mature the fruit cake. Also prevents it from spoiling.

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How to Make Fruit Cake (Stepwise pictures)

Soaking Dry Fruits in Alcohol

Take all dried fruits in a bowl or container. Pour in 1 cup rum and mix well. Leave it to soak over night. Dried fruits can be soaked a week in prior.

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Pre-preparation

1)Preheat oven to 180 degree C. This recipe makes two 8 inch round cakes. You can bake this into one 8x16 cake pan as well.

To prepare the pan. Line two baking pan with parchment paper and grease with oil. Set this aside.

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Dry Ingredients

2)Take plain flour in a sieve. It is best to sieve dry ingredients together so there is no lumps and the cake will be airy.

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3)Add in baking soda and baking powder.

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4)Add in salt and sieve it well.

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5)I added spice powders into the flour. I used cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, dry ginger and cardamom. Add it directly over the sifted flour and mix well. This is your dry ingredients.

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Coat dry fruits with flour

6) This step is optional but I highly recommend you to do it. I added 2 tbsp of plain flour over the soaked dry fruits and tossed well. This makes the dry fruits disperse evenly into the cake.

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Make Caramel

7)Take sugar in a saucepan and heat it gently. The sugar will start to melt down. Don't stir the pan just swirl it gently so the sugar melts evenly.

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8)Now you can see the sugar has reached dark caramel in colour.

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9)Pour in ¼ cup of water into the caramel and stir gently. It may splatter so be careful when pouring water. Mix water with the caramel so it melts evenly. Set aside to cool.

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Fruit Cake Batter

10)Take butter in a mixing bowl. The butter has to be softened.

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11)Add in sugar.

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13)Add in a splash of vanilla extract.

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14)Use a hand blender or electric beater to mix butter with sugar and vanilla till creamy.

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15)The mixture looks creamy.

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16)Add in eggs. I added two eggs first and mixed it till creamy.

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17)Egg is incorporated into the butter, sugar mixture.

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18)Add in the remaining three eggs and whip till creamy.

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19)Now the mixture is light and fluffy.

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20)Add in half of the dry ingredients.

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21)Pour in half of the cooled caramel water and gently fold the batter using a spatula.

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22)Add in the remaining flour mixture.

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23)Pour the remaining cooled caramel water.

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24)Fold batter till the batter is smooth.

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Adding Dried Fruits

25)Add in the flour coated dried fruits. At this point you can add chopped nuts as well. You can add ½ cup of chopped nuts. Almonds, cashews, walnuts can be used.

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26)Fold the dry fruits and nuts into the batter. you can see the dried fruits is evenly distributed in the cake batter.

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Baking Fruit Cake

27)Divide the batter between two cake pans. Spread the cake batter evenly.

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28)Bake till cooked. Remove from oven and cool completely.

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29)Once cooled invert the cake on a cooling rack.

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30)Slice and serve.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How to Make Caramel for Fruit Cake?

Take sugar in a sauce pan and heat it on low heat. Now it will start to crystalize. Keep stirring and it will slowly start to melt. Keep heating on low heat till it gets nice dark colour. Now take it off the heat and add in water and heat till the sugar dissolves again. Set aside cool.

How to Use Rum or alcohol in Fruit Cake

Take dry fruits in a bowl, pour 1 cup of dark rum, you can increase it or decrease as you like. I didn't add any nuts in this cake, but you can add any nuts of your choice. Just add it along with the dry fruits and soak it together. If you don't want to use rum, just soak the dry fruits in orange juice.

How to Feed Christmas Cake for Maturing?

You can bake this cake 2 to 3 months in advance. If you are doing that way. You have to feed the cake every week until christmas to make the perfect Christmas fruit cake. Follow the below step.

1. Once the cake is baked and cooled completely. Remove from the tin. Wrap it in fresh piece of parchment paper and extra sheets of aluminium foil. Store it in a container at room temp.
2. Every week remove the cake and use 50 ml of rum of brandy and brush this all over the cake generously. Wrap again and store.
3. Repeat this process every week until Christmas.
4. You can bake this cake 2 to 3 months in advance or 6 months to 1 year in advance too.
5. This process will mature the fruit cake. Also prevents it from spoiling.

How to Store Fruit Cake?

You can bake this cake 2 to 3 months in advance. Once the cake is baked and cooled completely. Remove from the tin. Wrap it in fresh piece of parchment paper and extra sheets of aluminium foil. Store it in a container at room temp.

How to Decorate Christmas Cake?

• Christmas fruit cake can be served as it is on Christmas day. You can decorate it with marzipan and fondant as well. Cover the Christmas fruit cake with a sheet of rolled marzipan. Then cover it with a layer of rolled fondant.
• Use Christmas cookie cutters to cut out different shapes in the fondant and decorate the cake as per your liking.

What is the oldest known fruit cake?

Fruit cake has magnificent shelf life. The oldest Existing fruitcake wasbaked in 1878.

What is the story behind fruit cake?

In England, it was customary for unmarried wedding guests to put a slice of fruitcake under their pillow at night so they could dream about the person they would eventually marry. The connection was that fruitcake was traditionally the kind of cake served at British weddings.

Why is fruitcake only for Christmas?

The American tradition of eating fruitcake around the holidays stemmed from the British tradition, when the dessert was sometimes called Christmas cake or plum cake. This fruitcake was incredibly popular in Victorian England, when it became a vital part of celebrating holidays and weddings.

How long should a fruitcake mature for?

Fruit cake can mature anywhere from 3 months to a year. You have to properly feed the cake and allow it to mature.

How to Serve Fruit Cake?

Christmas fruit cake can be served as it is on Christmas day. You can decorate it with marzipan and fondant as well.

More Fruit Cake Recipes

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