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    Home » European Vegetarian Desserts

    Published: Nov, 2019. Updated: Sep, 2020 by Iryna Bychkiv | This post may contain affiliate links. Read more here

    Christmas Fruit Cake Recipe

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    This Christmas Fruit Cake recipe is exactly what you would expect from crowd-pleasing Christmas dessert. It's festive, flavorful and amazingly delicious. Perfect addition to your Christmas menu.
    Also check out these classic Christmas desserts: German Christmas Cake and Danish Christmas Rice Pudding.

    Christmas Fruit Cake with Sugar Glaze and Cranberries on top

    Christmas Fruit Cake

    Tis the season for the most decadent and delicious recipes to serve to your family and friends over the Christmas table.

    If Thanksgiving is all about turkey and pumpkin recipes, Christmas, in my opinion is the best holiday for serving up eggnog, all things gingerbread and dried fruit laden desserts.

    The latter are my favorite desserts because you can play around with different combination of dried fruits, infuse them with a little bit of alcohol and/or pair them with almond paste or marzipan. 

    The possibilities are endless and desserts that are packed with dried fruits are always delicious and never disappoint.

    Dry Fruit Cake With White Glaze

    Where did Christmas Fruit Cake originate?

    For ages, cakes made with dry fruits have been a traditional Christmas dessert in Europe. Different countries have their own variations of this sweet treat. In Portugal it's called Bolo Rei, in Germany - Stollen and in Scotland - it's Dundee cake.

    All these cakes are very similar with nuts and dry fruits being the most important ingredients in the recipe. Some recipes also call for Marzipan or Almond Paste. 

    Thanks to the abundance of flavorful dry fruits, the cake always comes out extremely flavorful and delicious.

    Plus, most of these Christmas fruit cakes are so easy to make. Maybe, that's why I love making them at any time of the year. 

    Christmas Fruit Cake Recipe against blue background

    Moist Fruit Cake Recipe Without Alcohol

    My today's recipe for Christmas Fruit Cake looks stunning and tastes delicious! It's very easy to make and unlike some other traditional European desserts, you won't spend your whole day in the kitchen.

    Thanks to the abundance of various dry fruits, this Fruit Cake recipe is super flavorful and moist too. My recipe doesn't have alcohol in it, because I wanted to make it kid-friendly. 

    In addition, to make this cake look festive, I poured a simple sugar glaze all over the cake and decorated it with frozen cranberries and rosemary sprigs. 

    Simple and looks beautiful!

    Christmas Cake on a platter decorated with frozen cranberries and rosemary sprigs

    Best Fruit Cake Recipe

    For this recipe you can choose any dry fruits you like or can find in your grocery stores. My favorite choice is raisins, dry apricots (Turkish apricots are the best), prunes, dry cherries, dry cranberries and dates. 

    And if you want, you can also pick 2 kinds of raisins: dark Thompson and Golden raisins.

    Moreover, this cake will also taste great with candied fruits, such as pineapple, mango or papaya.

    These can tricky to find, but if you do find them and decide to use in a recipe, make sure to reduce the amount of sugar as candied fruits are already quite sweet. 

    How to store fruit cake?

    Store dry fruit cake in a cool dry place for up to a week. I stored mine on a counter covered with a mash food cover.

    If you're planning to freeze the cake, I recommend doing so before you cover it with a glaze. Otherwise the condensation will appear and the glaze will be sticky and mushy.

    Tightly cover the cake with 2 layers of plastic wrap and freeze for up to 3 months. 

    How to serve fruit cake?

    Pour sugar glaze over the cake and scatter fresh cranberries on top along with the rosemary sprigs. Serve with a cup of tea or coffee.

    More Christmas desserts to enjoy:

    • Ukrainian Style Dry Fruit Cake
    • Dutch Christmas Log
    • Finnish Christmas Cookies
    • Russian Tea Cookies
    • German Hausfreunde Cookies

    Recipe

    Christmas Fruit Cake on a platter

    Christmas Fruit Cake

    This Christmas Fruit Cake recipe is exactly what you would expect from crowd-pleasing Christmas dessert. It's festive, flavorful and amazingly delicious. Perfect addition to your Christmas menu.
    5 from 3 votes
    Print Pin Rate
    Course: Dessert
    Cuisine: European
    Prep Time: 25 minutes minutes
    Cook Time: 1 hour hour
    Total Time: 1 hour hour 25 minutes minutes
    Servings: 8
    Calories: 548kcal
    Author: Iryna Bychkiv
    Prevent your screen from going dark

    Ingredients

    For the batter

    • 2 ¼ c + 3 tbsp all-purpose flour sifted and divided
    • 3 c dry fruits raising, apricots, dry cherries, dry cranberries
    • 8 oz butter softened
    • 1 c sugar
    • 4 eggs
    • 2 teaspoon baking powder
    • 2 teaspoon vanilla extract

    For the sugar glaze

    • 1 c powdered sugar sifted
    • 3 tablespoon lemon juice
    • 2 tablespoon cranberries fresh or frozen for garnish
    • 1-2 sprigs rosemary for garnish

    Instructions

    • Preheat the oven to 360 F and line a standard size loaf pan with parchment paper.
    • Start off by cutting larger chunks of dry fruits into smaller pieces.
    • Sprinkle them with ¼ cup of flour and shake off the excess.
    • In a medium bowl combine 2 cups + 3 tablespoons of flour and 2 teaspoons of baking powder.
    • In a large bowl add softened butter, sugar, vanilla extract and whisk in eggs, one at a time. It's best to use hand mixer for this.
    • With a wooden spoon stir in flour and baking powder mixture.
    • Add in dry fruits and mix everything well.
    • Pour batter into a loaf pan and bake for 1 hour (depending on your oven this type may vary). On 1 hour mark poke the cake with a wooden toothpick. If it comes out clean, cake is ready. If not - give it another 10 minutes.
    • Remove cake from the oven and loaf pan and cool it on a wire rack until it's no longer warm.

    To make sugar glaze

    • In a medium bowl add powdered sugar. Start whisking in lemon juice one tablespoon at a time. Whisk until no lumps remain and the glaze is thick and smooth.
      If sugar glaze comes out too liquid, you can add a little more powdered sugar.
    • Spoon sugar glaze over the cake, top with cranberries and decorate with rosemary sprigs.
    • Let the sugar glaze harden and the cake is ready to be served.

    Nutrition

    Serving: 1slice | Calories: 548kcal | Carbohydrates: 74.2g | Protein: 7.4g | Fat: 26g | Saturated Fat: 15.4g | Cholesterol: 143mg | Sodium: 198mg | Potassium: 360mg | Fiber: 2.1g | Sugar: 45.5g | Calcium: 86mg | Iron: 2mg
    Tried this Recipe? Tag me Today!Mention @Lavender.And.Macarons or tag #lavenderandmacarons!

     

    Iryna Bychkiv
    Website

    Iryna Bychkiv is the founder and writer of the culinary website Lavender & Macarons, where she shares clean, European-inspired recipes that are delicious, easy to prepare, and made with wholesome ingredients. Iryna loves creating meals that are simple yet healthy and unique, including vegan and vegetarian recipes.
    Iryna is also a freelance writer for MSN and Associated Press Wire.

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    • Lemon ricotta loaf on a wire rack.
      Italian Lemon Ricotta Cake
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      Soffioni Abruzzesi (Sweet Ricotta Pastries)
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    Comments

    1. Bartkova Natalia says

      December 19, 2019 at 12:24 pm

      5 stars
      Delicious! Real Christmas cake! Love it. Thank you for a great recipe.

      Reply
      • Iryna says

        December 21, 2019 at 12:50 pm

        You're welcome:)

        Reply
    5 from 3 votes (2 ratings without comment)

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    I'm Iryna - a healthy food writer, photographer, and taster behind Lavender & Macarons. Here, you'll find healthy, clean recipes that are easy to prepare, made with wholesome ingredients, and approved by picky eaters. More about Iryna...

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