Christmas Fruit Cake is a tradition in our Bengali household. Traditionally, chopped dry fruits are soaked in dark rum for 21 days, but this Christmas Fruit Cake has no alcohol and needs no prep. You can make it at the very minute, and it tastes amazing with tea, coffee or with a little whipped cream on top.
Growing up in Shillong, a tiny hill station in India, Christmas has always played a very important role in my life! We celebrate with fruit cakes, and Christmas carols would be playing in every house that we could hear when we would walk by.
Here is another simple but unique Orange and Mint Cake that I love to bake during this time.
It's an emotion that will forever remain very close to my heart.
My brother makes a stunning fruit cake with dark rum but am still staying away from alcohol since I haven't started giving booze infused dessert to my boy, just yet!
Ingredients for my Christmas Fruit Cake
Dried fruits - You can take your choice of dried fruits and chop them into tiny bite size. I used apricots, melon skins, dried cantaloupe, dried mango, dried kiwi, ginger, and few other fruits along with raisins and cranberries.
Orange Juice - Instead of using dark rum, I use fresh orange juice to rehydrate the dried fruits.
Walnuts or your choice of assorted nuts - I like to use walnuts and pecans to the cake mixture. You can keep it nut-free too.
Eggs - This cake is made with eggs, but you can make it egg free too by adding 1 cup plain yogurt. The texture will however be a little different if you use yogurt.
Brown Sugar - Instead of white sugar, I like to use brown sugar for this cake recipe. It adds to the color and also adds a toffee like taste.
Oil - My Mom always used oil for this cake and I stuck with that. But you can try with room temperature butter too.
Dry Ingredients - The dry ingredients are the regular flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. All sifted together and then mixed to form the batter.
I am personally a big fan of carrot cake and considering the perfect timing of good carrots, I sometime add grated carrots too.
If you enjoy carrot cakes, try my carrot cardamom cake
Steps to prepare
1- Chop the dried fruits into tiny, even bite size and keep in a bowl. If you are using nuts, don't add that yet.
2- Squeeze fresh orange juice and add it to the dried fruits. Keep aside for an hour or two for the fruits to rehydrate.
3- Whisk eggs with brown sugar.
4- Whisk oil and to the mixture until it looks smooth and oil doesn't look separated anymore.
5- Shift the dry ingredients.
6- Using a rubber spatula, fold the dry ingredients to make a smooth, thick batter.
7- Add the soaked nuts along with the orange juice, and the chopped nuts. Mix to incorporate everything.
8- Add in an 8-inch round pan. Wrap a wet baking strip around the pan for even baking. The baking strip also avoids creating the dome on top of the cake.
Once the cake is baked, leave it aside for 5 minutes, then take it out of the pan and let it cool down completely before you slice.
FAQs
Yes, you can make it eggless by add 1 cup plain thick yogurt to the mixture. The texture will be different from the one you make with eggs, but it will still be very delicious! Here is my Eggless Tutti Frutti cake
No, it is not the pudding cake. It is a crumbly light cake that has a lot of dried fruits and orange juice.
You absolutely can! In fact, I always feel that the cake taste better the next day.
When it comes to baking the cake, I always look for an easy route where I can just throw everything in one bowl, whisk it up and done.
This cake is so fuss free that even if you don’t bake often, you can easily pull it off without much effort at all.
More Christmas Cake to try
Carrot Orange Christmas Fruit Cake
Ingredients
- 1 and ½ cup Assorted dried fruits (Chopped into tiny bite size)
- ¼ cup Assorted nuts (roughly chopped )
- 1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup tightly packed dark brown sugar
- ¾ cup Canola/vegetable oil
- 1 cup All-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- Roughly chop the dried fruits. Do not grind, as you want the chunky bites in the cake. Also, roughly chop the walnut. In a mixing bowl, pour the orange juice along with the chopped dried fruits (NOT THE NUTS, it will be added later). Mix it around and keep it aside for minimum an hour or overnight.
- In a big mixing bowl, crack the eggs and whisk it with the brown sugar. Then, pour the oil and whisk it again to mix everything.
- Next, sift all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt). Whisk it again. The batter will be thick and not too runny.
- Finally, add the soaked dried fruits along with the remaining juice. Using a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon, mix everything.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease an 8-inch round baking pan with oil and dust it with flour. If you want, you can also line a parchment paper at the bottom of the pan. If you have baking strips, wet it and wrap it around the pan.
- Pour the prepared batter in the pan and layer the batter evenly. Tap the cake pan a couple of times to set the batter. Place it it the preheated oven on the middle rack for 50 minutes.
- After the cake is baked, take it out of the oven and let it cool down on the pan. Do not try to release the cake at this point. Give it a good 5 minutes to cool down completely.
- Release the sides of the cake before try to flip the cake.
- I personally prefer it just as is with a cup of tea, but you can serve with some whipped cream too.
Video
Nutrition
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Shelley
Made a variation of the cake using this as a guide and it turned out fabulous.
Used dark rum to soak the fruit and it was perfect.
Definitely going to be on my favorite list.