Fruit Cake

Fruit Cake is a classic Christmas dessert cake with candied fruit, walnuts, raisins and a tender spice cake. Perfect for gifting or your morning coffee!

This Christmas, wow your friends and family with Ultimate Carrot Cake (which by the way is filled with the world’s best carrot cake jam), or a delicious, homemade Fruit Cake in your search for the perfect Dessert Recipe (check out all our dessert recipes!) for the holidays!

Fruit Cake has been a holiday favorite for generations, and this tasty recipe is the perfect blend of new and traditional. It’s Christmas time, and you know what that means? Christmas cake! There aren’t many cakes that are more associated with Christmas than Fruit Cake, and this recipe is the perfect combination of time-honored and traditional with updated and delicious.

Plus, my Fruit Cake recipe is a great excuse to break out those super fancy loaf pans that you’ve been dying to use. This Fruit Cake has an incredibly reasonable cook time, and may just end up being the best Fruit Cake you’ve ever had.

A helpful tip for making Fruit Cake: once it’s done cooking, you should insert a toothpick into the middle of the cake. If it’s clean when you pull it out, it means that the inside of the cake is solid and ready to cool off. If it comes back covered in batter, you need to put the cake back into the oven for a few more minutes to get it thoroughly baked.

HOW TO MAKE FRUIT CAKE

• Preheat oven to 300° and grease a 9×5 loaf pan.
• Add your shortening and sugar to a stand mixer on medium speed for 1-2 minutes until light and fluffy.
• Add in the eggs one at a time, then add in the vanilla.
• Add in the flour, baking powder, salt and spices until just combined then fold in the chopped dried fruit and walnuts.
• Pour the mixture into your loaf pan.
• Bake for 90 minutes.
• Cool for 10 minutes then remove from your loaf pan carefully and allow to cool completely before slicing or wrapping as a gift.

MORE CLASSIC HOLIDAY DESSERT RECIPES

Cranberry Ambrosia Salad

Ambrosia Salad

Apple Pie

Pumpkin Pie

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VARIATIONS ON FRUIT CAKE

• Fruit: You don’t have to just use the dried fruit in this recipe, you can mix in all sorts of other tasty ingredients like apricots, cranberries, currants, blueberries, and prunes. Mix and match them to change up the flavors of the cake without having to change the base ingredients, and you may find a new family favorite variation.
• Toppings: When the cake first comes out of the oven and is still very warm, dust the top with brown sugar mixed with a melted unsalted butter. The warmth from the oven will caramelize the sugar and add a delicious, crunchy sweetness to the cake.
• Spices: You can experiment with dashes of spice to get just the right taste. I recommend trying Pumpkin Pie Spice Mix or Apple Pie Spice to get a deeper, spicier flavor. Keep in mind that you should always start with a small amount of spice and add more to taste to avoid overdoing it and ruining the cake.
• Gluten-free: To make this recipe gluten-free, all you have to do is replace the shortening and all purpose flour. I recommend using almond flour or buckwheat flour. To replace the shortening, you can use Crisco or a little extra butter. While shortening isn’t usually made with gluten, most of them don’t specifically claim to be gluten-free, so it’s best to err on the side of caution if you have a gluten intolerance.

• Who invented fruit cake? The ancient Romans. Although, there is an argument that Ancient Egyptians were actually the first.
• What is the oldest fruit cake? In the oldest Antarctic base, Cape Adare, Robert Scott left a Fruit Cake during his 1910 expedition. It is still technically edible.
• Why does Fruit Cake get such a bad rap? Fruit Cake tends to be pretty dense and has a specific, not terribly sweet flavor. This recipe is sweeter, has a spice cake flavor, is more tender and moist and more modern.

HOLIDAY MAIN DISH RECIPES

Roast Turkey

Perfect Garlic Prime Rib

HoneyBaked Ham (Copycat)

Baked Ham (with Brown Sugar Glaze)

HOW LONG IS FRUIT CAKE GOOD?

• Serve: You can store Fruit Cake at room temperature for up to a month as long as you keep it in an airtight container. The Fruit Cake will get really stale if you don’t keep it covered.
• Store: Properly stored in something airtight, Fruit Cake can stay good in the fridge for up 6 months before it turns rock hard and you need to throw it out. Never put a Fruit Cake away while it’s still hot from the oven. Let it cool down to room temperature first.
• Freeze: You can keep Fruit Cake in the freezer for up to a year, you just have to make sure that it’s completely sealed and no moisture leaks in. If you’re storing a cut Fruit Cake, I suggest layering sheets of parchment paper in between them to make sure that they don’t fuse together over time. I also suggest eating it well before next year for best results.

5 from 8 votes

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Fruit Cake

Fruit Cake is a classic Christmas dessert cake, made with candied fruit, walnuts, raisins and a tender spice cake. It's perfect for gifting or your morning coffee!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword Fruit Cake

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 2 hours

Total Time 2 hours 15 minutes

Servings 16 Servings

Calories 306 kcal

Author Sabrina Snyder

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup red candied cherries
• 1/2 cup green candied cherries
• 1 1/2 cups candied pineapple , diced
• 1/2 pound walnuts , halved
• 1 cup golden raisins
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoons nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon cardamom

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 300° and grease a 9x5 loaf pan.

2. Add your shortening and sugar to a stand mixer on medium speed for 1-2 minutes until light and fluffy.

3. Add in the eggs one at a time, then add in the vanilla.

4. Add in the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices until just combined then fold in the chopped dried fruit and walnuts.

5. Pour the mixture into your loaf pan.

6. Bake for about 90 minutes.

7. Cool for 10 minutes then remove from your loaf pan carefully and allow to cool completely before slicing or wrapping as a gift.

Nutrition Facts

Fruit Cake

Amount Per Serving

Calories 306 Calories from Fat 153

% Daily Value*

Fat 17g26%

Saturated Fat 3g19%

Cholesterol 40mg13%

Sodium 90mg4%

Potassium 214mg6%

Carbohydrates 35g12%

Fiber 2g8%

Sugar 19g21%

Protein 5g10%

Vitamin A 66IU1%

Vitamin C 8mg10%

Calcium 47mg5%

Iron 1mg6%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.