Easy Boiled Fruit Cake Recipe

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Hi Bold Bakers!

WHY YOU’LL LOVE THIS RECIPE: My Easy Boiled Fruit Cake Recipe is here to save the day if you need a rich, boozy fruit cake but are short on time. Traditionally, a fruit cake takes a few months to age, but this clever recipe turns out a decadent, old-fashioned version in just a few hours! This dreamy festive dessert is studded with jewel-toned fruit infused with luscious almond liqueur. 

• A holiday centerpiece: A homemade fruit cake embodies the celebratory mood and bounty of the season. Forget about any stodgy, heavy store-bought fruit cake you may have had in the best. This boiled fruit cake is amazing.
• Plump, flavorful fruit: This cake contains mostly naturally dried fruit, not tutti frutti (candied, crystalized fruit). When dried fruit is plumped up, it takes on a new level of delectable softness. This dessert is more fruit than cake!
• Wonderful just-baked or aged: There’s no overnight soaking of the fruit or feeding this cake week by week. This cake can be served right away! Or, if you prefer and have the time, age it for a few months–it’s up to you!

One of our Christmas traditions in Ireland is to eat fruit cake, and part of the tradition of making the cake is to make a wish when storing the ingredients together. I have wonderful memories of mixing the batter in the big Mason & Cash bowl in the kitchen with my mum, and as we did it, we would all line up to make our wish. Check out my holiday recipes, including My Mum’s Christmas Pudding, Aunty Rosaleen’s Traditional Irish Christmas Cake Recipe, and if you want to make an aged fruitcake, learn How to Feed a Christmas Cake!

Table of Contents

• What is Easy Boiled Fruit Cake Recipe?
• Tools You Need
• Key Ingredients and Why
• How to Make Easy Boiled Fruit Cake
• Gemma’s Pro Chef Tips
• Make Ahead and Storage Instructions
• FAQs
• More Festive Cake Recipes

What is Easy Boiled Fruit Cake Recipe?

• With my Easy Boiled Fruit Cake, you get all of the dense, rich goodness of a holiday cake and the abundance of sweetened fruit and nut flavors without a lot of work and time. Boiling shortens the process by softening the fruit, dissolving the sugar, and melding the flavors quickly.
• My moist fruitcake is simple to customize. Leave out any ingredient you don’t love, or add a favorite flavorful ingredient like orange zest or dried apricot, cranberries, currants, dates, figs, pineapple, pecans, or walnuts.
• Ancient Romans made fruitcakes made with barley pomegranate seeds and honey. When global trade brought new spices to Europe, cooks used them in fruitcakes and used alcohol as a preservative. Aging the cake or letting the flavors develop over a few months while feeding it with whiskey or another type of alcohol became a common practice. Making boiled fruit cake is a time-saving way to get the same delicious, nostalgic taste in a fraction of the time.

Tools You Need

• Mixing bowl
• Measuring spoons
• Measuring cups
• Glass measuring jug
• Kitchen scale (optional)
• Parchment paper
• 8×3 inch (20×7 ½ cm) cake pan
• Whisk
• Large saucepan
• Spoon
• Silicone spatula

Key Ingredients and Why

Self-rising flour

• Self-rising flour (also called self-raising flour), a mixture of all-purpose flour and baking powder, gives the cake structure by forming a gluten network. The structure is especially important in a cake like this, which is packed with fruit and nuts.
• Importantly, the baking powder in self-rising flour helps keep it from being too dense.
•  In Ireland, self-rising flour is readily available in stores and commonly used in baking. If you can’t find it where you live, you can Learn How to Make Self-Raising Flour so that you can always have some ready to use.

Mixed spice

• Mixed spice gives this cake an irresistible mix of warm, zesty, aromatic flavor.
• Mixed spice is a blend commonly used in Irish and British and Irish baking, especially around autumn and the holidays. It’s our equivalent to America’s Pumpkin Pie Spice!
• Mixed spice contains allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, cloves, coriander, and ginger. Learn how to make your own so you always have this versatile blend on hand.

Cinnamon

• Ground cinnamon’s warm, spicy, uniquely comforting taste gives this boiled fruit loaf a tantalizing aroma and flavor.

Cloves

• Ground cloves add sweet warmth.

Allspice

• An extra bit of allspice punches up the flavor and aroma.
• Allspice is similar to a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.

Raisins

• Raisins add fruity sweetness and a pleasant chew.
• When raisins are boiled, they plump up and get perfectly soft and moist.

Sultanas

• Sultanas, or golden raisins, are dried green grapes. They’re slightly juicier than raisins and have a lighter flavor.
• The sultanas add lovely texture and visual appeal to this dried fruitcake.

Glace cherries

• Glacé Cherries (Candied Cherries) are fresh cherries that have been simmered in a thick sugar syrup until they are ‘candied.’
• This process can take a little time, but it makes a big batch. The great thing is that they will last in the fridge for up to one year.
• Make them with my easy recipe!

Prunes

• Prunes contribute a lovely, intense, sweet-tart flavor to this old-fashioned boiled fruitcake.
• Importantly, prunes add softness and moistness to the cake with their soft, wonderfully sticky texture.

Almond liqueur

• Almond liqueur gives the cake a delectable moistness and keeps it from drying out.
• The delicate nutty-sweet almond flavor, reminiscent of marzipan, is beautiful on its own, but it also enhances the fruits and nuts
• Amaretto is a widely available almond liqueur.
• If you don’t want to use alcohol, substitute orange juice for the almond liqueur.

Lemon zest

• Fresh lemon zest adds a fresh zing to this boiled fruitcake recipe, perfectly cutting through the richness.

Butter

• Butter adds fat, moisture, and flavor to this fruit cake.
• Melting the butter in the boiled fruit and sugar mixture makes a syrupy emulsion that helps hold the cake together and moisten it.

Dark muscovado sugar

• Dark muscovado sugar, with its high molasses content, adds a caramelly, toffee-like flavor to the cake. This bolder flavor is the perfect complement to the holiday spices.
• Importantly, the high molasses content makes dark muscovado sugar moister than regular sugar. This moisture helps give the fruitcake its signature rich texture and keeps it from drying out. It also gives the cake a dramatic, darker color.
• Alternatively, you can substitute dark brown sugar for the dark muscovado sugar. It will yield a cake with a slightly milder taste and lighter texture.

Slivered almonds

• Slivered almonds add crunch and flavor.
• The nuts also enhance the almond liqueur.

Eggs

• Eggs provide protein to bind the ingredients together, forming a cohesive structure.
• Use room-temperature eggs for the best results. See my post, How to Get Room Temperature Eggs for tips.
• If you prefer, you can use flax eggs in this recipe. Check out my Egg Substitute Chart for details and more shelf-stable options!

How to Make Easy Boiled Fruit Cake

Prepare to bake

1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C) and butter and line with parchment the bottom and sides of an 8×3 inch (20×7 ½ cm) cake pan.

Mix the dry ingredients

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, mixed spice, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice.

Boil the fruit

3. Into a large saucepan, add the raisins, sultanas, cherries, prunes, water, almond liqueur, and lemon zest. Bring to a simmer over medium heat.
4. Cook for five minutes, stirring frequently, until the liquid is absorbed.
5. Stir in the butter, sugar, and muscovado sugar into the boiled fruit mixture and cook for a few minutes until the butter is melted and the sugar is dissolved. Take off the heat and let cool for ten minutes.

Finish making the cake

6. Fold in the flour, spice mix, almonds, and eggs.

Bake the cake

7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for two hours, until cake is firm when pressed and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
8. Let cool completely in the pan before removing.

 

Gemma’s Pro Chef Tips

• We use a very traditional combination of dried fruit in this cake, but you can use any combination of your favorite dried fruits if you wish to mix things up. Be sure to finely chop any large pieces.
• Dark muscovado sugar is traditional, but if you can’t find any, you can use dark brown sugar. For more information on brown sugar, check out this article.
• You can use sherry, brandy, or rum in place of the almond liqueur, or try an orange liqueur like Grand Marnier.
• If you age this cake, it will keep for up to 3 months at cool room temperature. For instructions on how to do this, see our article How to Feed a Christmas Cake. (For the the liqueur, use whatever you used to boil the fruit.)
• Make your own glace cherries using my recipe.
• Use my self-raising flour recipe in this cake.

Make Ahead and Storage Instructions

Make ahead tips

• Prepare the boiled fruit in advance:
  • Boil the fruit with the water, almond liqueur, and lemons in advance, and store in the refrigerator for up to three days.
  • When you’re ready to make the cake, reheat the fruit mixture in a saucepan before adding the butter and sugar.
• Bake the boiled fruit cake ahead of time and age it. 
  • This cake can be served right away or aged for a few months.
  • Please see How to Feed a Christmas Cake for easy directions.

How to store leftovers

• Store wrapped well at room temperature for up to 1 week or in the fridge for 2 weeks. It also can be frozen for up to 3 months. 

FAQs

How do I make sure my cake has the perfect texture, not dry and not overly sticky?

• To make sure your cake isn’t too dry:
  • Note the low and slow baking. The low temperature is crucial for not drying out the cake.
  • Take care not to over-mix the cake batter, as this can cause too much gluten development. Fold in the flour, spice mix, almonds, and eggs, until just combined.
• To make sure your cake isn’t overly sticky:
  • Be sure to let the boiled mixture cool sufficiently so the fruit can absorb the liquid.
  • Measure the liquid ingredients carefully.

Can I make this boiled fruit cake without egg?

• Yes, you can make this boiled fruitcake without egg.
• Please see my guide, 12 Best Egg Substitutes for Baking Recipes. A flax egg would work well in this recipe.

Can I make this cake gluten-free?

• Yes, you can make this cake gluten-free.
• Substitute a 1:1 self-rising gluten-free flour for the regular self-rising flour.

What’s the difference between fruit cake and Christmas pudding?

• Fruitcake is a baked cake filled with dried fruits, nuts, and spices. It is often soaked in alcohol (typically whiskey) for weeks before baking, or in this Easy Boiled Fruitcake recipe, the fruit is quickly infused with alcohol.
• The cake is usually served in thin slices, and is enjoyed with a cup of tea or a glass of Irish whiskey.
• Christmas pudding, also known as plum pudding, is a moist, dense, steamed, or boiled dessert that’s filled with dried fruits, suet, spices, and breadcrumbs.
• It is traditionally prepared in a spherical shape and is typically served hot.

More Festive Cakes

• Red Velvet Roulade Cake
• Luxurious 24-Layer Cake
• Perfectly Spiced Gingerbread Sheet Cake
• Hazelnut Cake with Salted Caramel Buttercream Frosting
• Buche de Noel Recipe (Christmas Yule Log)

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