One-Day Fruitcake Recipe (2024)

I'm Irish. Grew up with rich, brandy soaked fruit cake and loved it - still have my grandmother's hand written recipe 70 years later. BUT this cake is a different bird and rather than make suggestions for changing it why not give it a go as written. That's what I plan on doing . And hey, I'll have the extra brandy on the side.

I inquired about this for a different recipe (not owning a bundt pan) and was told that 2 loaf pans would work. You can then give one 'fruit loaf' away!

Made hundreds of fruitcakes since 1979, all wrapped in cheesecloth and placed in plastic zip-lock bags before I pour brandy on them. Made 32 this year alone. My best advice: use more brandy or rum on the cake and give it time to soak into the fruit/nut mix. I pour enough brandy on mine so they are well soaked with a tablespoon or so left on the bottom of the bag. I flip the cakes for a few days so the brandy is absorbed before they are put away for a month of aging. Oh, it is all well worth it!

Hi, Kathleen, Instead of alcohol, Bread Ahead Bakery in London suggests subbing an equal measure of a really strong brew of black tea, such as an Earl Grey. Bread Ahead uses this tip so they can offer their mince pies and Christmas Cakes to those who can’t or prefer not to consume alcohol. Also makes the taste of your list expensive ingredients (the dried fruits and nuts) really shine without the alcohol, which does tend to overpower things for me. Happy holidays!

This is a perfectly lovely cake, but if you are seeking a simpler alternative, do a search for the "Tu Bi'Shvat Cake" posted by food blogger David Lebovitz. It is a loaf sized cakes made with dried fruits and nuts, warm spices, 3 eggs, and just enough sugar and flour to hold it together. It takes about 10 minutes to put together, and 90 minutes to bake in a 300° oven. It is the easiest cake I know, and everyone I've made it for, loves it.(Tu Bi'Shvat is a lesser known midwinter Jewish holiday.)

You could use an equal amount of apple juice or apple cider, or perhaps a fortified wine like a semi-dry marsala or madeira if those flavors are more to your liking. If it's the taste of raw alcohol you object to, you could boil the rum for a few minutes to cook off the alcohol. In that case, I'd start with twice the amount called for and boil until it's reduced by half.

I made this yesterday in small bundtlette pans. I tested after 40 minutes. Total baking time was approximately 50 minutes.

I haven't made this fruitcake yet, but in my experience with other recipes, fruitcake is rich enough without icing. I would consider skipping the icing.

I'm not a fan of almond paste. Can it be left out? If not, what would be a good substitute?

I found the substitution of almond butter for the almond paste led to a perfect cake.

I often want to bake something that requires soaking dried fruit overnight. I put the fruit in a Pyrex measuring cup, cover it with rum or brandy and heat it in the microwave until it starts to bubble. Cover it for a half hour and it's good to go.

To the issue of shelf life, my yearly batch of 10 Guiness Stout fruit cakes wrapped in cheesecloth soaked & topped up from time to time in brandy last until all eaten up - about a year. The cake Robert Scott took with him on his ill-fated expedition to the South Pole was found in excellent condition over 100 years after he left it there - "almost edible".Fruitcake gets a bad name - undeserved in my opinion. The delight is there is no end of dried and candied fruits which can be added.

Hi,I would like to substitute the alcohol for something else, any suggestions?

I have made cakes like this, with dried fruits and nuts--they are good. But real, traditional fruitcake must use candied fruits, too. To get around the tasteless supermarket candied fruits, I make my own, which takes weeks but is well worth it. Candied pineapple, orange, & citron (see David Leibowitz's recipes) and apricots, can be glaceed in season when fresh, refrigerated until baking time before the holidays. It is possible to find candied cherries without artificial colors (from Britain).

Having been steeped in the traditional English fruitcake recipe, this cake is a revelation. I love the addition of almond paste (homemade of course) and the non- traditional fruits steeped in rum and orange make for an enriched flavour profile. Made as per recipe, but suggest not cutting the cake til the following day when it is fully set. Delicious with a cup of tea.

This was delicious and held at room temperature for about 10 days. Started to look a bit sloppy and crumbly but the taste remained.Thanks Claire for the very explanatory video. I watched it several times to get the hang of it. It helped a lot.This is a rather expensive cake to make but so worth it! Mine turned out like the picture but more drips of icing. I will definitely make it again.

I try to make a fruitcake for my mom every year, as she loves them. The past cakes have all been ones that I needed to feed or age for weeks but this one was way easier and the family favorite so far. In order to modernize it a bit I used a mixture of dried strawberries, cherries, cranberries and dates instead of currents etc and I glazed it with a cream cheese glaze. The cake was so moist and even some of the fruitcake haters liked it!

Made my third "Saffits" Fruitcake cake of the season and all have come out great and eaten quickly by three different parties. Didn't have apricot jam the third time so used plum jam, which darkened the cake even more. Also used Walnut & Fig Rum: a winner! My daughter divided her recipe into small loaf pans wanting individual portions but came out a bit drier than mine. Also, in my most recent one I used green raisins that gave it an even juicier texture. Added to my yearly tradition.

I made this and it was enjoyed by many! I tried making it in advance so that it wouldn’t turn out crumbly like many commenters noted, however, mine did still turn out quite crumbly. I might leave out just a little dried fruit next time to see if that helps, or chop the fruit even smaller.I really enjoyed the flavor the almond paste brought! The cake didn’t taste boozy at all, which I also appreciated, however, I really didn’t taste the rum at all, so maybe a little more would be ok :)

This will irritate some. I love the flavours of fruitcake but cannot stand the texture fruits in cake. I baked this cake and it was lovely. My sister and mum are beyond thrilled by it. I want a fruitless version: a dense boozy spice cake, with nuts and maybe some chocolate chunks, or maybe no chocolate.

Simply the best fruit cake I have ever eaten. It's one of the few recipes I have followed as written, with the exception of using more dried cranberries instead of dried cherries, as I couldn't find them. Making homemade almond paste was surprisingly easy and satisfying. It turned out exactly as shown in the picture.

How many eggs? I do ot see eggs in the ingredient list.

Does anyone know if this could be made with a gluten free flour? Seems like you could almost just swap out the flour as levening isn't important here.....

This recipe makes the best fruitcake we've ever had. Last year, we used two glass loaf pans; this year we used an antique cast iron bundt pan. We found it helpful to use a serrated bread knife, washed before each slice, and lightly 'skated' through the cake, to slice it. The cake made in the bundt pan was harder to slice without crumbling - we think due to less cake surrounding the fruit on the "thin end" of the slice. Got dried fruit from Nuts.com.

Gluten free: Just sub equal weight of Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 GF flour blend (light blue label) and proceed exactly as written. Make sure to bake through, which always takes a bit longer w GF flour. Absolutely delicious.

I was thrilled with the fruitcake recipe results last year. Yes, it freezes beautifully. I make loaves and cut them, and keep them in a zip lock freezer bag. I am not fond of the strong alcohol flavor, so I use orange juice and rum for both soaking the fruit and the loaves. One of my recipients soaks his loaf in rum when he receives it and is delighted with the flavor.

Made this cake last Christmas, following the recipe except used Bourbon (Kentucky native) instead of rum and cut the currants. It was lovely! Perfect texture and flavors. Been craving it again and can't wait to make it this weekend.

This was great with lots of flavour and my kids loved it. I just realised last week that US cup and spoon measures are different to the rest of the world (?!) so I made this using my new US cups and spoons. I used homemade marmalade jam instead of the Apricot and it worked well add a nice note also only used half the brandy after baking as it was for kids.

This was delicious lots of flavour and recipe worked well. I made this using my new US cups and spoons as only realised last week that the US has different sizes cups and spoons sizes than the rest of the world (?!?!!). Beware American bakers of overseas recipes. I subbed homemade marmalade jam for apricot which worked well and only used half the brandy post baking as it was for the kids to eat after school.

This cake lasted much longer than the recommended five days. And what a fabulous fruit cake! I soaked the fruit in orange juice and brandy for a couple of weeks because I didn’t have time to make it right away.