The time has come! You’ve been lovingly stirring and looking after your boozy fruit and after six weeks soaking it’s ready to be turned into your Christmas Cake!
Ingredients:
1 x Boozy Fruit Soak
225g butter, softened
150g light muscovado sugar
75g dark muscovado sugar
2 tbsps treacle
5 eggs, large
285g plain flour
2 tsp mixed cake spice
100g whole almonds (optional of course if you don’t like nuts!)
150ml brandy, for feeding the baked cake
Before we get onto making the cake read through the top tips covering frequently asked questions!
Christmas Cake Top Tips:
- If you haven’t prepared your boozy fruit do it now (and then come back and tell me why you didn’t do it when I posted the recipe – bad Pink Whiskers!) Soak it for at least a week, more if you can. Once you’ve soaked it there may still be excess liquid with the fruit, heat the mixture gently in a pan until the majority of the liquid has gone, then continue with the recipe.
- If you’re outside the UK can’t get hold of treacle, molasses is a good substitute.
- Make sure your tin is deep sided (3″ deep), a shallow tin won’t do the trick here!
- Be sure of your oven temperature, a long slow bake is what is called for to stop the cake from drying out too much and baking evenly.
- Position your cake on a shelf about 1/3rd of the way up from the base of the oven.
- Keep an eye on the baking – start checking your cake for doneness from 2 and a half hours in. Insert a skewer in the centre and it should come out clean when it’s completely cooked through. If your oven temp is any different to 110c then it may be done sooner, but it may also take longer if your oven runs cool. You need to employ your cake testing skills!
- When it comes to feeding the baked cake, you can miss this out completely if you would rather, wrap the cake well as described and set aside to mature. The flavours of the cake still intensify and the fruit in the cake will soften and be delicious.
- If you would rather you can feed with apple juice or tea for a non-alcoholic cake.
- If you don’t have a tin big enough to store your cake it will be fine wrapped well with baking paper and foil alone.
You can also split your cake mixture into a batch of cakes of different sizes.
The full quantity is designed for 1 x 8″ cake which totals 1500ml. If you want cakes of different sizes I’ve tested out bake times and quantity of the mixture for the following sizes. Use the guide to split your batch between the cakes you want to bake.
| Size Tin (round) | Quantity of Mixture | Bake Time | |
| 2.5” (6cm) | 150ml | 1/10th | 1 hour |
| 4” (10cm) | 500ml | 1/3rd | 2 hours |
| 6” (15cm) | 1000ml | 2/3rds | 3 hours |
| 8” (20cm) | 1500ml | Full | 3 hr 45 mins |
Righty-ho on with the cake!
Preheat the oven to 110c (fan)/130c/Gas Mark 1.
(Ingredients are the same as previous years but the only change to the recipe is a lower temperature for a gentler baked cake.)
Cream together the butter and sugars until they’re light and fluffy.
Add the treacle and beat it in well.
Now for the eggs, add them one at a time working them into the creamed mixture before adding the next.
In goes the flour and mixed spice and a last mix up.
Now there’s the base for the cake.
Take your boozy fruit and fish out the cinnamon stick.
Add the fruit (no don’t eat it!) to the cake plus the whole almonds if you’re choosing to add them.
And now a last stir up! Cake mixture done!
Time for the tins – line the base and the sides of a 8″ round, deep tin (at least 3″ deep”). At this lower temp you don’t need to wrap around the outside of the tin with newspaper to protect the sides.
Fill with your cake mixture and bake it in the oven for 3hrs 45 minutes.
Keep an eye on the baking – start checking your cake for doneness from 2 and a half hours in. Insert a skewer in the centre and it should come out clean when it’s completely cooked through. If your oven temp is any different to 110c then it may be done sooner, but it may also take longer if your oven runs cool. You need to employ your cake testing skills!
Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely in the tin.
Once the cake is cold remove it from the tin removing the baking paper from the sides of the cake but keeping the base disc in place, this will help keep in moisture as the cake is fed in the run up to Christmas.
On your worksurface lay out two large pieces of foil, one horizontally and one vertically. On top of that place two large sheets of baking paper. Finally position the cake in the middle.
Using a skewer pierce 30-40 holes in the top of the cake, only ¾’s of the depth of the cake though so that the brandy doesn’t run straight through!
It’s handy to put the feeding brandy into a jam jar, that way it’s ready whenever it’s time to feed the cake.
Using a pastry brush, brush over the entire top of the cake with the brandy. You are looking to add 1 or 2 teaspoons of brandy in each feed.
Once fed, gather up the baking paper and seal in the cake, repeating with the foil layer. No place the whole lot in a suitable container, I use an old Christmas sweetie tin which is just the perfect size!
Place the container into a cupboard or the pantry, it needs to be out of direct sunlight somewhere dry but don’t forget about it. Feed it every 3-4 days for the next few weeks or until the cake won’t absorb anymore. If you come to feed it and it appears wet then leave it to soak in for a couple of days before adding anymore.
Christmas cake – done! Well for now, we’ll be decorating at the end of November!
Ruth Clemens, Baker Extraordinaire
Keep reminding me – I really must start my christmas preparation.
hi ruth i wonder if you can help me ?
i am wanting to make your cake in a 2lb loaf tin, any idea how long it would take to cook not sure if it makes a difference to cooking time, although it would be deeper than a round tin.
tia tracey xx
Hi Tracey – yes of course a 2lb loaf tin will work, You will need about 2/3rds of the total mixture (use a 1lb loaf tin for the remaining 1/3?) and I think the bake time will be about 2h 30 – 3 hours at 110c. Hope that helps! X
Hi Ruth, I’ve done a supersize jewelled version this year (three times as much) and wanted to check if measures were the same as last year’s bake – I think the jug of fruit was 1020g on last year’s recipe but more fruit this year? Loved the cake last year, can’t wait to get started on this one! Thanks, Donna
Hi Donna – I’ve used up my stash so can’t check but I think its just a smidge over 1300g x
I’m going on holiday for a week on Saturday, does it matter if my cake is not fed for that first week or should I make it when I get back? Thank you! X
Oh gosh no – don’t be tied to your cake! Have a lovely hols and feed it when you’re back xx
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I’ve used your recipe the past two Christmas’ Ruth and each time my cakes have improved. People have actually asked me to make them a cake this year, but I have politely declined due to time (or the lack of it!). I have given them your site details to visit for themselves. Thanks for the tip about a slower bake this year. I wil try it and let you know how I get on. Thanks for all your advice and recipes. I have two if your gingerbread cakes stashed away ready for half term next week, to feed the troops.
Happy baking,
B x
Lovely – thank you Bernice x
Probably a silly questions but do the 4inch tins need to be 3 inches high also?
I’m making my first christmas cakes this year and have the ‘boozy’ fruit ready, i’m getting more excited by the minute.
It depends on the size of cake you want to make, you can of course use a shallower tin but the quantity and time I’ve given is for a deep tin x
Hi can anyone tell me where to buy the mixed cake spice, I’m presuming this is different to normal mixed spice from supermarket? Thanks
No it’s the same – with the spices – Mixed Spice, its a combination of cinnamon, ginger cloves and nutmeg x
hi ruth, thank you that’s a great help.
can’t wait to get it in oven now lol,for the lovely christmassy aroma.
love all your work,book, blog and can’t wait for the next book !
tracey h xx
Thank you Tracey xx
Hi Ruth,
Ive made the christmas cake but, yours looks a lot darker then mine.
Kath.xx
Sometimes the darkness depends on the brands of the sugar, but they do darken considerably with ageing and feeding – I’m sure it’s spot on x
Every time I’ve made a fruit / christmas cake in the past the fruit migrates to the bottom half. Hopefully I’ll get it right with this time. Thanks.
Hi Ruth, looking forward to baking my cake. The Christmas cake recipe posted on your page a couple of years ago said to use light & dark brown sugar whereas this recipe uses muscovado sugars…is there a difference in flavours? And why the change?
Many thanks
There is a difference between a genuine Muscovado and just a brown sugar and it’s the depth of taste, due to the way they are processed. Either will do the trick but my preference is for a real Muscovado x
Thanks Ruth, I duly made my boozy fruit a few weeks ago, I decided to scale it up as i want to make a number of cakes, but cant now recall how many I decided I was going to make, are you able to advise roughly how much one portion of boozy fruit should weigh for your receipe so that I can work out how much pf my fruit to use? Thanks, sorry for being such a ditz!
Ha! Sounds like something I’d do! I don’t have any left to check but I would estimate roughly 1300g for one portion Xx
I have a 9 inh tin not 8 inch. Also how long could I soak the fruits for because I am using the water and sugar mix instead of alcohol (brandy).Your help would be much apreciated.
If baked in a 9″ tin then the cake will be a little shallower and may be baked sooner so you will need to keep your eye on it. Ideally the fruit should soak for 4 weeks but you can get away with just 1 or 2 if time is limited. x
Mine is done and looking good. I had great success with your recipe last year, even though I started late, so hoping that this year’s will be even better. The slower bake sees to have worked well – last year the cake cracked cross the top, but this one is lovely and even. Thanks, Ruth x
Brill! x
Your christmas cake looks amazing! Every year I say I’ll make one but I never get started early enough and only really think about it when I see people’s baked cakes – by which time it is too late
Wish I had come across your blog sooner
Go on, do it now (it’s never too late!) x
Hi Ruth, I’m afraid i was a naughty pink whisker who didnt do my fruit! Anyway, i’ve done it now and just baked my cake this afternoon. It smells fantastic (honestly could put the xmas decs up now!) It has cracked along the top though and i wondered what i had done to cause that?
Hi Kat, the cracks on the top are usually just from the oven being a little too hot. They close up though as the cake is fed and matures between now and Christmas. Go on, put the tree up! Xx
i think my boyfriend would have me committed if i did that! but very reassuring that the cracks will close up. I want to decorate with silver and green glitter straight onto the cake so didnt really want the cracks there. Thanks Ruth.
Thanks so much for this
I love making Christmas cakes, but I always struggle with the timings because I have smaller tins- your little table is really really useful! Thanks again.
My fruit has been soaking in Disaronno for 3 weeks now (bit late… oops!) and it’s time to get baking! I’m going to use the tins from sponge puddings to bake individual cakes for gifts – how many do you think I’ll get from this mixture? Can’t say I’m too good at guesstimating the size against your table! x
I’m estimating – and have been known to be way off
but I reckon you’ll get 6 and they will probably take just over an hour to bake – but do keep a good eye on them! Let me know how you get on x
The mix fit 5 tins perfectly! About 1hr 45 in my fan assisted oven
They smell amazing, thank you! x
Thanks for the amazing recipes! Was contemplating using gluten free flour in this recipe for a family member but not sure what else I’d need to change. Any ideas?
Gluten free flour absorbs more moisture than regular flour, make up the cake mixture and it should be a soft dropping consistency to dollop from a spoon. If it is very stiff add in a little milk until it reaches the right consistency – other than that all should be fine! xx
Made one large one, two 3 inches and lots of muffin sized ones and they smell great. They took at lot longer to cook than your timings though- think my oven team’s not very accurate! Head’s full of decorating ideas.
Hi Ruth,
I want to put my 950g of fruit (that has been soaking as per your instructions for 6 weeks) into a 10 inch square cake tin, what do I need to add to your 8inch recipe?
Thanks
H x
Hi Hayley – I would make it as it but bake a slightly shallower cake instead, without extra fruit you can’t really increase the quantity of the final cake mixture easily x
I baked last years cake with the old recipe with fruit I had steeping in port and whiskey for a year. I kept half the fruit, so this years has been steeping two years, topped with whiskey from time to time…five eggs made my sugar/butter very runny, I needed a few teaspoons of flour towards the end as a curdle was threatening(45 minutes using a soup blender thing with the whisk attachment, I think he motor is lost burned out!)..but with the spices and flour it held the fruit nicely during he bake. I was a little confused with timings for a 10″ cake tin, eventually gave it about 4:45 and the skewer is dry now. Not much time for feeding before marzipan but hopefully the fruit will make up for that flavour wise. Must prepare next years fruit this week!
Yikes – poor whisk! x
* THE motor is ALMOST
*during THE bake
Hi,
my fruit has been sitting in port and brandy for about 4weeks and i’m going to bake my cake next weekend, iwould like to add some ground almonds, what is the best way to do this? how much flour should i substitue with them?
thanks
Hi Julie,
I’d use 100g of ground almonds in place of the same amount of flour xx
Mine is in the oven now – smells really good at the mixing stage – now to wait…
I had two batches fruit which I thought should have made 3 six inch cakes with ingredients doubled up. I weighed out 1000 in to the 3 six inch cake tins but had 1300 mix over! What went wrong ? I stuck the left over 1300 into an 8 inch tin
I’ve been puzzling this one Anne I think you must have had more than two batches of fruit soaking to get that much mixture out at the end as one 6″ cake takes 2/3rds of one batch, to get 3x 6″ cakes you would have calculated to do at least 3 batches but would have had a fair amount left over – sorry I can’t quite figure out where it’s gone wrong – hope you can find a home for the extra cake! xx
I am puzzled myself Ruth but I am very happy to have an extra cake that I wasnt expecting! thank you for all your lovely recipies yours always turn out well for me.
this recipe looks divine! i’m going to soak the fruits today…better late than never
i was hoping you could clear some doubts. i dont think treacle is available where i live, is there anything i can substitute it for? and secondly i have heard of recipes wherein the fruits can be soaked upto a year! does it really matter beyond 6 weeks and if yes, can i use the above recipe for the same?
thanks in advance
I would add a small amount of molasses instead if you can’t get treacle but only 1 tbsp as they can be more bitter than treacle. Yes, the fruit can be soaked for upto a year, although after 6 weeks the fruit has softened as much as it’s going to and the flavours are already fairly deep x
Hi, I love the Christmas cake so much I’ve made extra boozy fruit to make the same recipe for a 12 inch round christening cake. I’m sure I read on one of your posts that this would need 2.5 times the quantities of ingredients, is this right? Also how long should I bake it for?
Hi Ruth, I made 3 cakes in November which are going to be gifts, I tried my mini 4″ tester cake last week and it was fantastic…sooooo tasty! Thank you for your wonderful recipe. This was my first attempt at making Christmas cake and it got a thumbs up from everyone!!
x
I actually found this particular posting , “Christmas Cake Baking Time!
| Baking, Recipes and Tutorials – The Pink Whisk”, extremely compelling and also the post ended up being a wonderful read.
Thanks a lot,Jaqueline
Tried your recipe this time after years of being a devoted Delia follower.
The cake is awesome – so moist & delicious & may make a re-appearance well before next December!!
Hey there! I hope you don’t mind but I decided to submit your web site: http://www.thepinkwhisk.co.uk/2012/10/christmas-cake-baking-time.html to my online directory. I used, “Christmas Cake Baking Time! | Baking, Recipes and Tutorials” as your weblog headline. I hope this is acceptable with you. In case you’d like me to change the title or
remove it entirely, email me at berniebinkley@gmail.com.
Thank you.
Hi, I’m looking for a fruit cake recipes for a wedding cake for a friend in June. and I love yours. But the bride doesn’t drink alcohol, so do you have any other way to soak the dried fruits mixture without the booze part.?
Thanks..
Soak them in tea, it helps plump them up but without the alcohol x Good luck with the cake
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