Traditional Christmas Fruit Cake Recipe

Christmas Fruit Cake is a rich, intense British style cake loaded with rum-soaked dried fruits, spiced with candied bits of orange peel, ginger, and garam masala. It is more than just a cake, it is a Christmas tradition. This fruit cake is like a warm, comforting granny’s hug, that will remind of Holiday Season for many many upcoming days.

About Classic Christmas Fruit Cake

In India, the tradition of baking a fruit cake on Christmas packed with alcohol soaked dry fruits came with the British.

Ever since it became a popular Christmas food tradition. It is one of the most awaited desserts of the year.

Christmas Fruit Cake is also known as rum cake or plum cake in many parts of India.

The chill of winters and the festive Christmas lights give meaning, purpose, and the right reason to indulge in this warm, earthy, spicy, slightly bitter fruit cake.

For me, The BEST Classic Fruit Cake:

Two Step Process

This fruit cake recipe is a two-step process.

Step 1) Soaking Dried Fruits: A mix of dried fruits, berries, tutti-frutti, candied ginger, and orange peel are soaked in alcohol for at least 15 days. There is no second step without completing this key dried fruits soaking process.

Step 2) Making The Cake: Once the soaked dried fruits are mature, they are added to the cake batter before baking. 80% of the flavor in a traditional fruit cake comes from the soaked dried fruits.

Soaking Dried Fruits

The original fruit cake recipe requires soaking dried fruits in good quality, dark rum about a month ago before making the cake. Don’t worry if you’re new to this method.

Selection of Dried Fruits: I use a mix of golden raisins, dried berries, cashews, walnuts, and colorful tutti frutti. Feel free to use a combination of dates, figs, cranberries, almonds, sultanas, currants, and so on. But make sure to finely chop each dried fruit.

Spices: Candied orange peels, candied ginger, garam masala, and a cinnamon stick are my favorite pick to flavor the soaked dried fruits. Make sure to finely chop the candied peels.

Alcohol: Traditionally, only rum was used for soaking all the dried fruits for the fruit cake. I use a mix of rum, red wine, and Kahlua for an intense, fruity, chocolate-y flavor.

Cherry brandy, amaretto, orange liqueur (Cointreau or Grand Marnier), and spiced rum are commonly used for soaking dried fruits.

Use a mix of apple juice, orange juice, and rum essence if you have wanted to make an alcohol-free fruit cake.

Soaking Time: I soak my dried fruits for 1 month. Yes, that is my SECRET. But you can soak them anytime from 1 month to 15 days. Seal the jar with a tight-fitting lid. Shake it every now and then. DO NOT OPEN the jar until ready to use the soaked dried fruits.

Fruit Cake Batter

SECRET INGREDIENT: The dark color and the deep flavor in a rum cake comes from the caramelized sugar. Yes, I add BIG tablespoons of caramelized sugar in the batter to take it to a next level of deliciousness.

Pick a time to make the sugar caramel when you will not be interrupted. One distraction, and it burns down to a bitter-tasting, sticky mess.

• Caramelize sugar before starting the cake and set it aside to cool down. In a pan on low heat, melt sugar slowly (image 1). It will first melt and then turn into a dark brown goop (image 2). Keep stirring and let it turn a deep dark caramel color. Don’t let it burn. Keep the flame on low.
• Add about ¼ cup water (image 3) and stay away because there will bubble and roar like a volcano eruption. 
• The sugar will harden and form crystals. Slowly heat the mixture until the sugar crystals dissolve and keep stirring it. This will take around 10 mins. Let this cool and set aside. Do not worry about the consistency it will be like thick honey or molasses.

The Christmas fruit cake batter is like any other sponge cake made with – flour, eggs, butter, and white sugar.

Whisk butter and sugar until creamy. Add one egg at a time and whisk each time. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, garam masala, and gently fold the batter.

At last, add caramelized sugar, and alcohol-soaked dried fruits. Cut and fold the batter to combine.

Bake the cake in a round tin at 180 degrees Celcius for 50 – 60 minutes in the middle rack of the oven.

My Tried & True Tips

Soaking dried fruits is an essential step in the making of a fruit cake. Hence, do not skip it.

I highly recommend using a hand mixer or stand mixer, for whisking the cake batter. It gives a nice structure to the cake.

Whisk only for 1 minute at medium speed after adding each egg.

Allow the sugar caramel to cool down a bit before adding to the cake batter else you might end up with scrambled eggs in the batter.

Add only the soaked dried fruits. Discard the liquid and the whole spices.

You can poke little holes in Christmas fruit cake while it is still warm, pour some brandy-rum mix to get a richer tasting cake with an extra boozy kick.

The fruit cake tastes best when it is made a few days before you intend to serve it. The flavors and the texture of the cake are more matured after a few days. Or you can bake it at night, and serve in the morning.

Serving Suggestion

In my opinion, a Christmas Fruit Cake does not require heavy decoration, fondant cover, glazing, or any whipped vanilla cream on the side.

The strong, intense flavor of the cake is a show-stopper in itself. And must be enjoyed without any toppings.

However, you can serve fruit cake with a good dessert wine, port wine, black coffee, or a cup of tea.

Storage Suggestion

In the olden days, the fruit cake was made on Christmas and stored for the upcoming winter season.

I store Christmas Fruit Cake at room temperature in an airtight container lined with parchment paper for 15 days and it remains absolutely perfect.

You can store it for 2 – 3 months in the refrigerator. It remains moist, intense, and tasty.

On certain occasions, I baked fruit cake, packed it after cooling down, and carried it with me while traveling (miles and miles via road/air/rail) to share with family. It is the best edible Holiday gift.

More Holiday Baking Recipes

Rum Bundt Cake

Gingerbread Cake

Almond Cookies

Chai Spiced Pumpkin Cake

Eggless Sponge Fruit Cake

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