Easy traditional Christmas cake recipe
- Published: 20 Nov 17
- Updated: 26 May 25
Our easy traditional Christmas cake recipe by expert food writer Debbie Major has been tested and honed to ensure you get the best results. “This cake is on the lighter side, but bursting with boozy soaked fruit (whisky is my preference),” says Debbie. Find guidance on how to customise the cake to your flavour preferences below – and here are Debbie’s tips for Christmas cake perfection:
- Use a quality, heavy-gauge cake tin. It conducts heat more evenly, won’t buckle and will help to prevent overbrowning.
- Wrapping a few folded sheets of newspaper around the outside of the tin and sitting it on another folded newspaper (step 2) will also help prevent the outside over-browning.
- Make an indent in the centre of the cake mixture before baking (step 5). The indent will rise a little as the cake bakes, so the top should end up flat, which helps if you’re icing it.
- Make the cake a few weeks in advance and feed it with a little alcohol as it matures to add flavour and keep the cake moist (see Make Ahead). Stop feeding your cake with booze a week before you want to marzipan it so the surface can dry a little.
- When wrapping the cooked cake use non-stick baking paper first, then foil. Foil that comes directly into contact with the surface can react with the alcohol and taint the cake.
- Marzipan a week before icing and leave somewhere cool and dry so the marzipan has time to harden slightly before icing. The marzipan is there for flavour but also to stop the oils in the cake from staining the white icing.
Discover our favourite ideas for icing a Christmas cake, from gingerbread house to snowflake designs.
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Serves 14 -
Hands-on time 55 min, oven time 3 hours 45 min, plus overnight soaking
Before you start
Check your baking powder is well within its use-by date to ensure it’s active enough to give a good (though slight) rise.
Muscovado sugar is worth seeking out as it adds colour and moisture and a lovely molasses flavour.
Use good quality alcohol, as you’ll taste it in the finished cake.
Nutrition
- Calories
- 604kcals
- Fat
- 27.3g (9.4g saturated)
- Protein
- 25.8g
- Carbohydrates
- 54.6g (40.3g sugars)
- Fibre
- 2.5g
- Salt
- 0.9g
delicious. tips
How to customise your easy Christmas cake
Use any alcohol. Try brandy, rum, sherry or even port. Alcohol with a lower ABV (alcohol by volume) than 20 per cent won’t help preserve the cake for as long, though, so if you choose one of those it’s best to eat the cake within 2 months.If you like a darker cake, add 1-2 tbsp black treacle in step 4.
Change the flavourings. Give it a Caribbean twist by adding mixed dried tropical fruits, crushed pineapple, plenty of nutmeg and extra stem ginger.
Mix up the nuts. Pecans, brazil nuts, hazelnuts and macadamias are all good.
Discover ideas for decorating your cake with this video:
As with any rich fruitcake, it improves with age. Make the cake at least 4 weeks (and up to 3 months) ahead. Take out of the baking tin and cover with non-stick baking paper, then foil. Store in an airtight tin in a cool, dark place.