Holiday Fruitcake

4.50 from 2 votes
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A delicious fruitcake recipe to help you celebrate the season!

Fruitcake can be traced all the way back to the Middle Ages. It’s a nice thought to serve something at your holiday meal that preserves a centuries-old tradition. Unfortunately, fruitcake has a bit of a bad reputation. When many people think of fruitcake, they picture a dense, dry, and overly sweet loaf cake. This fruitcake recipe is NOT that!

We’ve taken all the good traits of fruitcake—sweet fruits, spices, and rum—and made a moist, flavorful bundt cake that even non-lovers of fruitcake will enjoy!

How To Make a Christmas Fruitcake

Begin by combining sugar, water, rum, fruits, and butter into a large pot. Bring the mixture to a boil on the stove and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Your kitchen will begin filling with a delightful holiday aroma! While the fruit mixture is simmering, combine the remaining ingredients (flour, spices, almonds, baking soda, eggs). Once the fruit mixture is ready, fold it into the flour mixture. Fill a greased, 9-inch bundt cake pan with the cake mixture and bake at 275F degrees. As you can see, this recipe is easy to make but it does require a couple of hours of bake time so take that into account before you get started.

4.50 from 2 votes

Holiday Fruitcake

Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time2 hours
Total Time2 hours 20 minutes
Servings12 slices

Ingredients 

  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 cup rum
  • 2 cups dates
  • 2 cups golden raisins
  • 2 cups dried cherries
  • 1 1/2 cups dried apricots
  • 1 cup dried cranberries
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 cups almonds
  • 1 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 2 eggs

Instructions 

  • In a large bowl, mix sugar, water, rum, dates, golden raisins, dried cherries, dried apricots, and dried cranberries.
  • On the stove top, bring 1/2 cup of butter and mixture to a boil. Let simmer for 10 minutes. Set aside.
  • In another large bowl, mix flour, almonds, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking soda. Add in eggs.
  • Fold fruit mixture into dry mixture.
  • Fill 9" prepared bundt pan.
  • Bake in oven at 275 degrees for 2 hours and 20 minutes.
  • Let cool and serve.

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Desserts
Cuisine: Dessert
Like this? Leave a comment below!

We hope you enjoy our take on this quintessential Christmas dessert. Happy holidays!

Holiday Fruitcake Recipe

About Lori

Lori Taylor is the Founder & CEO of The Produce Moms. For ten years she sold fresh produce to over 300 grocery stores throughout the United States, and today she is fully focused on working with the produce supply chain, media, and government to increase fresh produce access & consumption in the US and around the globe. Connect with Lori on LinkedIn.

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