Old English Fruitcake
Old English Fruitcake. NEW VIDEO! Dark and moist with plenty of spices and packed with plenty of sweet glacé fruit. It's been a Christmas tradition in my family for decades.
Originally published on November 7, 2007. Updated to provide new featured photos and a new video!
It's still weeks away, I know, but I've got a head start on a dark old English fruitcake for Spouse. It's a real old English style, dense, dark fruitcake.
I think this one weighs in at between 7 and 8 pounds. It's her absolute favourite. Tomorrow she goes to the rum spa for a soak and a wrap. The cake, that is, not Spouse!
Inspired by my Newfoundland upbringing, this dark English fruitcake with roots in the UK is one of my favourite things to look forward to at Christmas. This is a large cake meant to be served in small pieces.
There are easily 40 portions or more which means there's plenty to share with friends and family whenever they pop by during the Holidays.
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Old English Dark Fruit Cake
Old English Fruitcake - A dark, rich, well spiced old fashioned English style fruitcake that can be made weeks in advance of Christmas.
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups chopped dried prunes (6 oz), chopped
- 1 ¼ cups chopped dates (6 oz), chopped
- 1 ½ cups dark raisins (8 oz)
- 1 ¼ cups golden raisins (6 oz)
- 1 ¼ cups currants (6 oz)
- ¾ cup butter
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- ¾ cup molasses
- ½ cup coffee liqueur, or ½ cup strong black coffee
- Zest and juice of 2 oranges
- 1 cup chopped glace cherries
- 1 cup candied citrus peel
- 1 ½ cups toasted pecans (7 oz), roughly chopped
- 2 teaspoon allspice
- 2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 teaspoon powdered ginger
- 1 teaspoon cloves
- 2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 3 tablespoon cocoa
- 3 eggs
- 1 ⅓ cups all purpose flour
- ½ cup ground hazelnuts or almonds
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
- In a large saucepan melt the butter over medium heat and add the raisins, dates, prunes, currents, brown sugar, molasses, spices, coffee liqueur (or coffee) and the orange zest and juice.
- Bring to a gentle boil and very slowly simmer for 10 minutes.
- Remove from heat and allow to cool for 30-45 minutes.
- When cool stir in the beaten eggs.
- Sift together, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda.
- Add the ground nuts and fold through the boiled mixture. Fold in cherries, citrus peel and pecans. Pour into prepared baking pan. You can decorate the top with additional pecan halves, cherries etc., if you like.
- Bake at 300 degrees F for 1 ½ to 2 hours depending upon the size of your pan. Mine took the full two hours in a 10 inch spring form pan.The cake should feel firm to the touch at the center and a wooden toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean. The cake should be cooled completely in the pan on a wire rack before removing.
- At this point you can poke small holes in the top and bottom of the cake with a fork and pour on 4 ounces of dark rum or your favorite whiskey, half on the top, wait ten minutes, then flip it over and pour the remaining half on the bottom.
- Soak several layers of cheesecloth in additional rum if you like and wrap completely around the cake, then cover with several layers of plastic wrap and store in a COOL place.
- When serving, you can add a layer of marzipan or if you have decorated the top with fruit and nuts, brush with a simple glaze of equal parts water and sugar boiled together for about 10-15 minutes.
Notes
The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.
Nutrition Information
Yield
40Serving Size
gAmount Per Serving Calories 231Saturated Fat 2gCholesterol 21mgSodium 62mgCarbohydrates 40gFiber 2gSugar 24gProtein 2g
Found this recipe last Christmas. Loved it. I made three more this year to share. Can not give any negatives, all pluses. Thanks for this cake.
I craved dark fruitcake this year and was delighted to spot this recipe which seemed to be just what I was looking for. I went to our local bulk food store, a small one-person business. Because the business is small, the food in bins is always extremely fresh. I bagged raisins and pecans then debated about citrus peel and glace cherries. The owner and I talked about using something else and she pointed out a nearby small bin containing a dried fruit mix. The mix was made up of prunes, dried peaches, dried apricots and dried pears. It was so fresh. I decided to substitute that mix for the citrus peel and cherries. I had also apples I had dehydrated in our dehydrator so I put some of those in as well. Another debate ensued in my head about the coffee and cocoa but I added them both. I'm so glad I did. The cake is better than any I've had in years. It's exactly what I wanted. Thank you so much for such a great recipe!
Reading that, I would have loved to sample your cake! It sounds wonderful!
Your cake looks absolutely delicious and I am trying it this weekend. I usually soak my dried fruits in brandy first but I note in you recipe there is no mention of alcohol. Plus the fruits are boiled in the butter molasses and the orange juice. I like adding brandy so can I substitute the orange juice with brandy? Or do I just soak the fruits in brandy first and then follow with the boiling and subsequent steps set out in the recipe?.
Your views will be most helpful. Thank you for sharing your recipe on this blog.
Anne
You can soak the fruit if you choose. I prefer to soak the cake at the end as in the recipe.
For what it’s worth, I do both. In Barbados many years ago, I learned that it is the custom there to soak the fruit for a year. In other words, acquire the fruit this year for use next year. Oh! By the way; they use dark island rum, of course. Seems to work just fine. And I also pour more rum over the cake and wrap it in rum soaked cheese cloth before storing it in a cake tin in my downstairs pantry where it stays pretty cool even in summer. Using this method, I can make six or seven cakes and they’ve been known to age up to five years with no problem. Of course, I do open the tins and spray the cakes with rum occasionally. Rum for dark fruit cakes and apricot brandy, Grand Marnier or some other fruity flavoured liquour for light cakes.
I'm a bit late to this party ad I've only just found your recipe. I collect fruit cake recipes and will be trying yours but could you clarify cup measurements please? I note several ingredients use this but are not translated into ounces (eg butter) so shall I just use the same scale?
No cup measurements are by volume, not weight.
Hello,
This is my first time going to make it. Sorry what kind of rum i need to use?? My husband said theres white and dark rum? I don't know about alcohol. I don't drink. Lol sorry if this question is weird. .😊
Thank you
Any rum is fine really but dark is traditional.
Hi Barry,
Ive made the fruitcake and have started the aging process. Ive been unwrapping it and brushing it with alcohol once a week. But is there a specific amount I should be brushing it with? I don't want to overdue it and turn it into a soggy mess.
Thanks
A little at a time over a long time is best. I generally add only a couple of ounces at a time.
Hi Barry, We are usually away at Christmas so I haven't done too much baking, however, we will be home this year & my family is a fan of dark fruitcake. I would love to try this recipe as it looks & sound amazing! My question is the pan size. I would prefer either a loaf pan or maybe one of the oldfashioned square fruitcake pans they used when making fruitcakes for wedding cakes ( don't think anyone has fruitcake for their wedding anymore!!) If I used a 10" square pan do you think that would work for the same timing? If I can't find that I guess I will try loaf pans... I like to be able to cut it in small "stick-like" pieces to put on my cookie trays, which would be rather tricky starting with a round cake! There are only 2 of us at home now so I would also like to be able to cut & wrap some of it as gifts & square or rectangular would work better there too.
Made this cake yesterday & it looks & smells awesome! I ended up using 2 regular sized loaf pans & cooked them for the full 2 hours. I am going to wrap them in rum-soaked cheesecloth. today. I realize that it is a bit early to be doing this but I had a day without anything else going on so I went ahead & made it. My question is if I keep it in the fridge will it be ok until Christmas or should I freeze it? Thanks!
Hi Barry. I have been following your site for about 6 months now and am loving your awesome recipes. I am going to attempt this fruit cake this year but was wondering if I can make them in smaller ones so I have them for gift giving? What would you suggest? Thanks again and keep up the fantastic job!!
Made this cake yesterday & it looks & smells awesome! I ended up using 2 regular sized loaf pans & cooked them for the full 2 hours. I am going to wrap them in rum-soaked cheesecloth. today. I realize that it is a bit early to be doing this but I had a day without anything else going on so I went ahead & made it. My question is if I keep it in the fridge will it be ok until Christmas or should I freeze it? Thanks!
Came across your recipe and decided to try it instead of my usual one. Wow! Has taken me 2.5 hours to get the two of them into the oven. Didn't have a large enough pan for just one. Will let you know how it turns out. Also took your advice and will be making my own almond paste this year. It is so expensive in the stores and I swear they keep the unsold stuff from year to year! Thanks so much for posting this.
Hi Berry, Merry Christmas!
Someone asked me to bake them a small fruitcake. Where this one is so big do you think I could bake two cakes in two 9 inch baking pans? Does this cake rise up alot? Your feedback would be greatly appreciated!
Just to let you know the cakes turned out fabulous. Nothing but high praise for this recipe. It will be my go to one from now one. The cake was so moist and rich. I have even ordered through your link a special square deep pan to bake it in for next year. The almond paste was always terrific. Thanks again.
My fruitcake is in the oven. This is such a great recipe. I have a hint of my own which I saw on another site which is so wonderful. I always have trouble cutting out and fitting the parchment paper to the cake tin until I saw this. Put the flat piece on the table place a piece of parchment paper on it and then put the rest of the tin over it. Once that is done you can cut the extra off. No measuring no hassle.
I use this recipe every year to make my Christmas cakes. This year I had to make a nut free one I replaced the nuts with oats instead and worked out just fine in case anybody else would be interested.