This fruity Christmas cake is packed full of traditional festive flavours and is a real treat.

I love making Christmas cakes. As soon as the weather starts to turn in early October, I get my Christmas cake on the go. It might seem strange these days to make a cake so far in advance, but it’s traditional. The Christmas cake is then fed every couple of weeks with brandy (or black tea if you don’t want to use alcohol) and, by the time Christmas comes around, it’s moist and packed full of flavour.

This Christmas cake is simply decorated with blanched almonds. If you plan to ice your cake closer to Christmas, you can skip this step – but I prefer my cake without icing. It’s sweet enough as it is, and without the icing and marzipan you can really enjoy all of the flavours of the cake.

Looking for more festive recipes? Why not try:

The Ingredients

Mixed dried fruit and dried cherries – if you prefer, rather than getting a bag of mixed dried fruit you can choose a selection of your favourites. I’ve added dried cherries too because I just love that sweet sharpness throughout the cake – so much more grown up than glacé cherries.
Brandy – you can use sherry or rum if you prefer or, if you’d prefer not to use alcohol, switch for cooled black tea.
Orange and lemon – we use both the zest and juice of the orange and lemon, making the cake really fruity.
Butter – you can use salted or unsalted.
Light brown sugar – don’t switch for dark brown or caster sugar.
Plain flour – you just need a little for this cake.
Ground, flaked and blanched almonds – the ground almonds bring a wonderful taste, the flaked add incredible texture and the blanched almonds make the cake look beautiful.
Baking powder – just 1/2 tsp ensures the cake is the right lightness.
Mixed spice, cloves, cinnamon– for those amazing festive flavours.
Eggs – to bind it all together.

Top Tips

Soaking the fruit Soaking the fruit overnight is an important step – it rehydrates the fruit and ensures that your cake is delicious and moist. If you skip this step, you’ll end up with a dense cake.
Mixing the cake Make sure you mix the cake well, you want to get rid of any pockets of flour. It’s tradition to make a wish when stirring the Christmas cake, so make sure everyone in the family has a go!
Baking the cake Use the skewer test to check if your cake is ready – a clean skewer inserted in the middle should come out clean. If it doesn’t, it’s not quite ready and you need to give it 10 more minutes before trying again.

When to make your Christmas cake

It’s best to make this fruity traditional Christmas cake a month before Christmas to give it feeding time (where you drizzle brandy over the top). However, it’s even better when you make it earlier – I always make mine at the start of October.