It's the Holidays which means it's time for some good old' festive desserts. Getting into the mood, I decided to kick things off with a classic cake recipe for the occasion: Christmas fruitcake. This cake is actually pretty simple to make since it's pretty much like a pound cake and its formula can be adjusted as such. Just add some chopped nuts and candied fruit of your choice to the batter along with some and rum, and that's it.

I usually prepare this Christmas fruitcake in a loaf pan, and this recipe will yield up to two of them each coming in at 9 x 5-inch size.

For the alcohol, I tend to use some dark rum for both the batter and the topping. I prefer Mount Gay, but any other brand is fine for you. If you prefer something that's minus the fruit and alcohol this Holiday season, you can try my other pound cake recipes instead.

Check out this recipe for moist lemon pound cake with syrup or this one for a vegan pound cake with a yogurt glaze.

The recipe

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/3 cup unsalted butter
  • 2 1/4 cups brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • Six medium sized eggs
  • 1 tsp allspice
  • zest one lemon
  • zest one orange
  • 3 tbsp dark rum
  • 3 cups, 3 tbsp cake flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/3 cup diced nuts of choice (cashews, almonds, pistachios, etc.)
  • 1/8 cup candied fruit of choice (cranberries, cherries, pineapple, etc.)
  • 1/8 cup raisins
  • Additional rum for topping

The directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease the insides of 2 loaf pans (9 x 5-inch each) and dust with flour, knocking out any excess that remains.
  2. Cream the butter, brown sugar and salt together with an electric mixer set at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the eggs in one at a time to incorporate each. Stop the electric mixer and scrape down the bowl.
  3. Add all spice, lemon zest, orange zest, and dark rum to the batter and mix at low speed until fully incorporated.
  4. Sift the flour and baking powder together over a bowl and set aside. Fold the dry mixture alternately with the buttermilk into the batter three times each.
  5. Stir in the diced nuts, candied fruit and raisins until fully distributed throughout the batter.
  6. Divide the batter evenly among the loaf pans. Place the pans into the oven and bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick or skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove from heat and set to cool for 10 minutes.
  7. Remove the cakes from the loaf pans by gently flipping them over not too high up from a flat and clean surface. Brush the tops of the cakes with more dark rum.
  8. Slice and serve.

Yield: 2 loaves