Fruitcake Loaf Recipe

This easy fruitcake is perfect for the holidays. It's light, tender, and full of dried fruits and nuts. Sprinkle the loaf with brandy, or leave it out. Either way, this fruitcake is a welcome addition to the holiday table.

Elise founded Simply Recipes in 2003 and led the site until 2019. She has an MA in Food Research from Stanford University.

Are you a fruitcake lover? Though this traditional holiday cake is often maligned (I guess some people don't like candied fruit?), it's wonderful when well prepared.

Easy Homemade Grandma's Fruitcake Recipe · The Typical Mom

This fruitcake is our family's favorite, packed with dates, walnuts, raisins, and glazed cherries. Think raisin bread on steroids. The recipe comes from the wife of a family friend, Patricia, who for years sent us a loaf every Christmas.

We usually have to make at least two loaves—one to eat right away, because we just can't wait, and the other to sprinkle with brandy and save for Christmas day. These loaves also make terrific gifts.

Fruitcake is really just like any other quick bread or loaf cake, only with a lot more fruit and nuts added. You make a simple cake batter, stir in the fruits and nuts, and bake until a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Fruitcake (christmas Loaf Cake)

You can sprinkle the cake with liquor (we like brandy), or leave it alcohol-free. The liquor will make the fruitcake more moist, and will help it last longer.

Fruitcake lasts longer than most other cakes because it is filled with nuts and candied fruit. It will last even longer if you sprinkle it with a spirit like brandy. Just keep it on the counter, tightly wrapped.

Cool the fruitcake completely, poke a few holes with a skewer in the top of the cake and sprinkle it with brandy, if desired. Wrap the loaf tightly with aluminum foil, and store it on the counter.

Quick And Easy Fruit Cake Recipe

You can age your fruitcake using alcohol as a preservative for about 1 to 3 months. Take about a yard of cheesecloth and soak it in brandy, whisky, bourbon, rum or some other liquor. Then wrap it around your cooked (completely cooled) fruitcake before wrapping it in plastic. Re-soak the cheesecloth about once a month for 6 weeks to 3 months (however long you'd like to age your fruitcake).

Alternately, brush your fruitcake with the liquor of your choice before wrapping it tightly in plastic film. Brush it with more alcohol every few days for the first 2 months of aging.

Store in a cool dry place while curing the fruitcake. Once it's been aged properly, you can eat it right away or refrigerate it for months, even years. When properly cured, the alcohol prevents bacteria from growing.

Traditional Rich Fruit Cake

We highly recommend using a kitchen scale to weigh the flour. If you don’t have a kitchen scale, measure the flour by fluffing the flour in its container, spooning the flour into the measuring cup, and leveling it off with a flat edge like the back of a table knife.

*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2, 000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate. In cases where multiple ingredient alternatives are given, the first listed is calculated for nutrition. Garnishes and optional ingredients are not included.

Holiday Fruitcake Recipe: How To Make It

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One of my favourite bakes is an everyday fruit cake. It’s something you traditionally think of at Christmas – a traditional Christmas cake covered in icing! But fruitcake recipes are something that I make and eat all year round – just without the layer of marzipan and icing over it!

A naked fruit cake is the perfect pick me up to enjoy with a cup of tea and to share with friends at any time of the year. You can’t beat a nice tea loaf or tea bread and this one is a really wholesome, hearty cake that will leave you more satisfied than a simple sponge.

Best Holiday Fruitcake Recipe

Unlike Christmas cakes, this traditional farmhouse fruit loaf doesn’t use soaked fruit and there’s now alcohol in it. It doesn’t need any forward planning so it’s a quick easy option compared to a Christmas fruit cake! It is a fantastic everyday bake to make for any occasion or no reason at all.

For a fruit loaf you can pretty much use any dried mixed fruits you have in the cupboard. For this recipe I used a ready made dried fruit mixture – the cheap bags you get in the supermarket that have raisins, sultanas and dried mixed peel in them as well as golden raisins, glace cherries and apricots.

You could add dried cranberries, prunes, or any other candied fruit or dried fruits you can think of or have to use up. You could even add some nuts if you like them in your old fashioned farmhouse fruit cakes to give a whole new texture to the mix.

Buttery Light Fruitcake Recipe

If you want to create a simple currant loaf cake then you could use all currants instead of a mix of dry fruits. This is such a simple recipe to vary and tweak easily to use whatever you have at home.

A lot of traditional fruit cakes are crumbly, like a traditional Genoa Cake or but this one holds together really well, with just the right amount of cake mix and fruit. It’s delicious, light, moist fruit cake and such a lovely treat as well as being just really easy to make.

The secret to a super moist fruit loaf recipe is to make sure there’s enough liquid in the mix for all the dried fruit to soak up whilst it’s baking. If there’s not enough liquid it will turn out too dry and crumble easily. We tend to use medium eggs for this bake but you can use large eggs if that’s what you have in the kitchen.

Christmas Fruit Cake {with Cake Mix}

We always use self raising flour for this recipe as we always have it in the cupboard but if you only ever use all purpose flour or plain flour – feel free. just make sure you add a teaspoon baking powder or baking soda to give the bake that little boost it needs!

If you like to add vanilla extract to your cakes then feel free – just replace a teaspoon of milk with a teaspoon of vanilla. You could also add a teaspoon of mixed spice if you like your home made fruitcakes to have that musky, traditional flavour.

For this English fruit loaf cake we always use caster sugar but if you didn’t have any you could use soft brown sugar, light brown sugar or even granulated sugar if you wanted. Both work well with the fruit in the bake.

White Fruit Cake

If you’re looking for fruit bread, like a fruit loaf you can toast and smear with butter, then this isn’t for you. This is definitely a fruit cake rather than fruit bread and definitely a sweet bake rather than savoury.

This mixed fruit loaf couldn’t be easier to make. You just need to make sure that you grease the tin you’re using really well or use loaf cake liners. I love using liners as they present the cake really well – perfect if you’re taking it to a friends’ house for afternoon tea! You could also line the tin with baking parchment paper.

I also use a stand mixer to mix this old fashioned fruit cake. Like with all fruit cakes, it takes a lot of arm power to mix it thoroughly so I love to take the hard work out of it by using my trusty mixer instead!

Fruit Cake Loaf

This easy fruit cake loaf stores well in an airtight container for a few days although it doesn’t often last that long! It’s one of our favourite bakes to make when friends or family visit and everyone always really enjoys it.

If you’re looking for other recipes to try here’s our lemon madeira cake, cherry bakewell fairy cakes, gingerbread rocky road and blueberry fairy cake recipes. You can see all our recipes to date here

You can make this fruitcake loaf cake recipe simply with things you already have in your kitchen but here are the things we use in case there’s something you don’t already have:

Free Range Fruitcake Recipe

As you can see, it’s all things you probably