If you're after an easy Christmas cake recipe, you can't go wrong with this boil and bake version. The entire prep process only takes around 15min – and throws out the rule-book above, somewhat.
By cooking the fruit you don’t have to soak it. Adding the rest of the ingredients to the warm pan means the batter is preheated, so the cooking time is shorter.
This means no paper is needed around the outside of the tin, the fruit doesn’t sink and you don’t have to put a dip in the batter.
The cake is gloriously moist from the get-go too, so if you’re pushed for time, you don’t need to mature it either – simply feed it whilst hot from the oven, then once it’s cool, it’s ready to eat.
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Yields:
30 - 35 serving(s)
Prep Time:
15 mins
Cook Time:
2 hrs 15 mins
Total Time:
2 hrs 30 mins
Cal/Serv:
458
Ingredients
175g
(6oz) unsalted butter, plus extra to grease
500g
(1lb 2oz) each raisins and sultanas
100g
(3½oz) each ready-to eat prunes, natural glacé cherries and stem ginger, chopped
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
150ml
(¼pint) almond liqueur (we used Amaretto), plus extra to feed
175g
(6oz) dark brown muscovado sugar
100g
(3½oz) blanched almonds, very roughly chopped
200g
(7oz) self-raising flour
1tsp.
each mixed spice and ground cinnamon
½ tsp each ground cloves and ground allspice
3
medium eggs, beaten
Directions
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 150°C (130°C fan) mark 2. Grease, then line the base and sides of a 20.5cm (8in) deep round cake tin with baking parchment.
Step 2
Put all the dried fruit and stem ginger into a very large pan with the lemon zest and almond liqueur. Heat the pan until the liqueur at the bottom begins to boil, then cook on a medium heat for 5min, stirring frequently until the fruit absorbs the liquid. Add butter and sugar and heat gently to melt, stirring occasionally to help dissolve the sugar.
Step 3
Take the pan off the heat and leave to cool for 5min. Stir in the almonds, flour, spices and beaten eggs and mix well. Immediately pour the mixture into the prepared tin and level the surface (there's no need to make a dip in the mixture).
Step 4
Bake the cake for 1hr 45min-2hr or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cover the cake with foil if it is browning too quickly.
Step 5
Leave cake to cool completely in the tin. When cool, remove from tin (leaving on parchment paper). Wrap a few layers of clingfilm around the cake in its paper, then cover with foil. Store in an airtight container in a cool place. After two weeks of maturing, prick the top of the cake all over with a skewer and sprinkle over 1tbsp almond liqueur. Re-wrap and store as before.
Feeding your cake
The Christmas cake will keep for up to three months stored in this way. It can be fed with more almond liqueur every week if you like, although if you prefer a less sweet cake, every few weeks is fine. Chill the dried fruit in the fridge first before you make your cake - you'll find it much easier to chop. Alternatively, pulse the fruit in a food processor.
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
