Fruit Cake is a classic Christmas dessert cake with candied fruit. A tender spice cake that is perfect for gifting or for 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 for the holidays!
Sabrina’s Fruit Cake
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.
Recipe Card
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 ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300° and grease a 9×5-inch 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 about 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.
Nutrition
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Table of Contents
About This Recipe
This cake has been a holiday favorite for generations, and this tasty recipe is the perfect blend of new and traditional. 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.
Chef’s Note
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 Store
- 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 cake will get really stale if you don’t keep it covered.
- Store: Properly stored in something airtight, this 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 any cake away while it’s still hot from the oven. Let it cool down to room temperature first.
- Freeze: You can keep this recipe 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 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.
FAQ’s
The ancient Romans invented it. Although, there is an argument that Ancient Egyptians were actually the first.
In the oldest Antarctic base, Cape Adare, Robert Scott left a Fruit Cake during his 1910 expedition. It is still technically edible.
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, moist, and more modern.
Variations
- 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.
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More Classic Holiday Desserts
This recipe does not work. The batter is so dry I could barely get it from the bowl into the pan. I had to choke every bite down with a sip of milk, and that’s after I’d slathered it with butter. I quadruple checked the ingredients and amounts. I am certain there must be a missing ingredient, or the amounts are not correct.
it is so good thanks for the recipe!
You’re welcome.
I forgot to say that I think a citrus flavor (any sort of orange, really) seems pretty essential to my tasting, which is why I add Grand Marnier to mine. I highly recommend at least one tablespoon of orange zest if you do not add Grand Marnier or triple sec to your cake. Looks great!
Thanks for your suggestion, Ellie.
…but, why is the rum gone?
😉
This looks great! Whenever I make fruitcake, I put the fruit and nuts in a Pyrex bowl, cover with Cognac and Grand Marnier (you could do brandy and triple sec), and microwave for 1 full minute to 90 seconds, let cool completely, and then drain and add them into the recipe. And I usually brush the warm cake with the leftover liquid after baking. Highly recommend that addition! And when you say to use extra butter if replacing the shortening, how much would that be exactly? I avoid shortening whenever possible.
Sounds amazing! If you want to replace the shortening with butter, use 1/2 cup of butter plus 1 tablespoon.
I’m confused. Your response in Nov. 2019 says you can substitute shortening with 1 1/8 unsalted butter. In this Feb. 2020 response you say 1/2 cup plus 1 TB butter.
What did I miss?
Sorry about that. After retesting at a later date, I feel like the 1/2 cup plus 1 TB is a better substitute. Enjoy!
Can I make 2 at the same time? If so, would I have to adjust the cooking time or oven temperature? Can I drizzle with some rum or brandy once a week up until Christmas and wrap in cheesecloth and aluminum foil?
It may need an additional 15 minutes in the oven if you decide to bake them at the same time. I’ve never tried drizzling with rum or brandy but it sounds amazing! Enjoy!
The ancient Romans first made it? Who would have thought. I guess they were just bejewelling their breasd. What a delicious recipe I think this could work with almond meal instead of flour too. Have you tried it?
It’s very interesting!:) I haven’t tried almond meal but if you do I would love to hear how it turns out.
I have so many memories of eating fruit cake as a child. I can’t wait to make this on my own now!
This recipe brings back wonderful memories of my Grandmother making fruit cake each Christmas! Fabulous post!
No season can be called a holiday season if there is no fruit cake on a table, right? 🙂 I love how yours looks, so I should probably keep it somewhere on hand this winter!
I agree completely! Hope you like this recipe!
I’m not usually a fan of fruitcake, but this more modern version turned out amazingly well! It was moist, delicious and perfectly sweet!
Wonderful, I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks so much for letting me know how it turned out!
Hi,
Can the shortening be replaced by unsalted butter ?
If so – at what proportions ?
Thanks…
Yes, you can substitute with 1 1/8 cup of unsalted butter. Enjoy!
Hi,
Can the shortening be replaced by unsalted butter ?
If so – at what quantity ?
Thanks…
You can substitute the shortening with 1 1/8 cups of unsalted butter.
I love fruitcake but I know a lot of people don’t. I make my mothers recipe every year and I might also try your recipe because it sounds good. The only change I would do is switch out with pecans
Let me know how it measures up to your mom’s recipe 🙂 Hope it comes in a close second at least 🙂