Traditional Christmas Fruit Cake With A Twist

This traditional Christmas fruit cake recipe is a staple of the holidays around our house. Made with dried fruit and a splash of rum, it’s a moist and delicious treat the whole family loves.

This traditional Christmas Fruit Cake recipe was adapted from a recipe I found on canadianliving.com and has become a family favorite.

The “twist” is that it uses tropical dried fruits instead of the usual citrus peels which makes the cake colorful and delicious!

The preparation is a little lengthy but do not be put off…there is a lot of lapsed time between the prep stages.

If you can make a cake mix, you can easily make this, once you have the fruit ready.

This cake tastes best if made a few weeks (or even months) ahead of Christmas and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator or fruit cellar to let the flavors mellow.

What You Need

Ingredients

Here’s your shopping list for this traditional Christmas fruit cake recipe:

• Dried fruit: 2 cups shredded coconut, 1 1/2 cups dried mangoes, 1 1/2 cups candied pineapple, 1 cup raisins, 1 cup red glace cherries – I buy my fruit at the bulk foods store and take a measuring cup with me so that I only purchase the amounts I need.
• Nuts: 2 cups blanched almonds
• Baking supplies: 2 cups flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 cup sugar
• Spices: 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Dairy: 1/2 cup butter
• 3 eggs
• Alcohol: 1 cup rum

Equipment

• knife
• measuring cups
• large bowl
• shallow baking pan
• sifter
• electric mixer and bowl
• 2 4″ x 8″ loaf pans
• parchment paper
• wire cooling racks
• 4 16-inch square pieces of Cheese cloth
• saran wrap
• foil

How To Make Traditional Christmas Fruit Cake

Prepare The Fruit

The first (and probably the most time consuming) step of making the fruit cake is to chop all of the fruit.

Then combine them all with half a cup of the rum in a large bowl.

Cover it with foil or saran wrap and let it stand for a day, stirring occasionally.

Prepare The Oven

Pour some water into a shallow baking pan and put it on the bottom rack in the oven.

Then turn the oven to 250 degrees F.

The water helps to keep the cake moist while it is baking. And the low temperature makes sure that it doesn’t burn.

Cut The Parchment Paper To Fit The Pans

Now we need to cut the parchment paper to fit the loaf pans properly.

To do this:

Cut 4 pieces of parchment paper that are big enough to fold to the top of all sides of the loaf pan.

The following steps need to be done to all of the pieces of parchment paper. You can either stack them all together and do them at one time. Or do each one individually.

1. Center the loaf pan in the middle of the piece you cut.

2. Draw the bottom of the pan onto the parchment paper.

3. Fold the parchment paper along the lines you drew.

4. Make one cut on each side of the parchment paper along the folded lines. Cut almost to the first fold line.

Use the parchment paper to double-line the inside of the loaf pans (ie. use two pieces of parchment paper for each pan).

Make The Fruit Cake

Next we’re ready to make the fruit cake.

Manually stir 1/2 cup of the flour and the almonds into the fruit mixture. Set aside

Sift together the rest of the flour, baking powder and the salt. Set aside.

Beat the butter with the electric mixer on high speed until it is well mixed. Using butter that has been warmed to room temperature will make this much easier.

Gradually add the sugar and continue to beat until the butter mixture is light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time and beat well in between each addition.

Manually add the flour mixture to the egg mixture with a mixing spoon. Don’t stir too much or the cake will get tough.

Then stir the cake batter into the fruit mixture with a wooden spoon. It will be very stiff! (I usually end up transferring everything to a larger bowl to make it easier to mix).

Again, stir just until combined. Too much mixing will make the cake tough and heavy.

Pack the mixture into the 2 loaf pans, smoothing the tops with the back of the spoon.

Bake in the center of the oven for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. If the top begins to crack, cover it with a piece of foil.

The cakes should be evenly browned but not too dark.

Once the cakes are cooked, remove them from the oven and let them cool completely on the wire racks.

Marinate The Fruit Cake

The last step is to marinate the fruit cake in the rum. This step is what will make sure the cakes are not too dry.

Remove them from the pans and peel off the parchment.

Soak the cheesecloth squares in the remaining rum. If you prefer not to use rum, you can substitute artificial rum extract.

Poke a few holes in the top of the cakes with a skewer or fork. This will let the rum soak further into the cake.

Wrap the cakes in the rum-soaked cheesecloth, using 2 pieces of cheesecloth per cake.

Then wrap them with a layer of saran wrap, and a layer of foil.

Refrigerate for at least 1 month or up to 3 months.

Then be prepared for it to disappear quickly!

Even my friends who don’t usually like fruit cake gobble this one up.

Traditional Christmas Fruit Cake With a Twist

This Christmas fruit cake is made from candied tropical fruit and soaked in rum which gives it a moist texture and delicious flavor. A staple of our family's holiday traditions.

5 from 1 vote

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 1 hour hr

Cook Time 2 hours hrs

Total Time 3 hours hrs

Course Dessert

Cuisine British

Servings 2 loaves

Calories 2745 kcal

Equipment

• knife
• measuring cups & spoons
• large bowl
• shallow baking pan
• sifter
• Electric mixer and bowl
• 2 4" x 8" loaf pans
• parchment paper
• pencil
• wooden mixing spoon
• wire cooling racks
• 4 16-inch square pieces of cheesecloth
• saran wrap
• foil

Ingredients

  

• 2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
• 1½ cups dried papayas chopped
• 1½ cups dried mangoes chopped
• 1½ cups candied pineapple chopped
• 1 cup golden raisins carefully checked to remove any little stems
• 1 cup red glace cherries halved
• 1 cup rum
• 2 cups blanched almonds slivered
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup butter softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3 eggs

Instructions

 

Prepare The Fruit

• Chop the fruit.
• In a large bowl, combine coconut, papayas, mangoes, pineapple, raisins, cherries, and ½ cup of the rum.
• Cover and let stand for 1 day, stirring occasionally.

Prepare The Oven

• Set a shallow pan on the bottom rack of the oven and pour in enough water to come halfway up the sides.
• Preheat oven to 250 deg. F.

Cut Parchment Paper To Fit The Pans

• Cut 4 pieces of parchment paper that are large enough to wrap up the sides of the loaf pans
• Center the loaf pan in the middle of the parchment paper.
• Draw the bottom of the pan onto the parchment paper.
• Fold the paper around the lines you drew
• Make a cut in each one of the edges along the fold you made. The cut should reach almost to the first perpendicular fold line.
• Use the parchment paper to double line the loaf pans.

Make The Fruit Cake Batter

• Gently stir ½ cup flour into the fruit.
• Add the almonds to the fruit mixture. Set aside.
• Sift together 1 ½ cups flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
• With electric mixer on high, cream the butter.
• Add the sugar gradually and beat until light and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl as necessary.
• Add the eggs one at a time and beat well.
• Fold the flour mixture into the egg mixture.
• Now stir the cake batter into the fruit/almond mixture with a wooden spoon. It will be very stiff.
• Pack the cake batter into the prepared loaf pans, smoothing the tops with the back of the spoon.
• Bake in the center of the oven for 1¼ to 1½ hrs., until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. If the top begins to crack, shield it with foil.
• Let cool in pans on wire rack.
• Remove cakes from pans and peel off the parchment.
• Soak 2 double thicknesses of 16-inch square cheesecloth in the remaining rum.
• Poke a few holes in the cakes with a skewer (which will let the rum run into them).
• Wrap cakes in the cheesecloth.
• Then wrap with saran wrap and foil.
• Refrigerate for at least 1 month, or up to 3 months

Notes

• To avoid having a lot of left-over ingredients, buy the candied fruit at the bulk food store and take a measuring cup with you. That way you can purchase the exact amounts that you need.
• Mix the batter only as much as you need to combine the ingredients. Over mixing will result in a tough cake.
• If you prefer not to use alcohol to soak the fruit cake, substitute artificial rum extract

Keyword Christmas desserts

Have you tried our Traditional Christmas Fruit Cake recipe? Rate it in the comments section below.

Sharing is caring!