Easy Fruit Cake Recipe & Video

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The British Fruit Cake is traditionally served during the Christmas season. It is full of dried fruits and nuts, laced with alcohol over several weeks, and often covered with marzipan and royal icing. The problem is that it's both expensive to make and it needs time to age. Luckily, there is a much simpler version of this cake for the last minute baker, and I call it an Easy Fruit Cake. You may know it as a Boiled Fruit Cake, a War Cake, and/or a Bachelor's Cake. I love a lot of things about this cake. I love that it still uses all the necessary fruit cake ingredients, like dried and candied fruits and ground spices. I love that the batter is so easy to make and you don't need to pull out your stand mixer. And most importantly, I love its flavor and that it can be eaten almost right away. This is one cake that is so good that it begs to be made all year, not just during the Christmas season.

This Easy Fruit Cake does not contain alcohol and yet its texture is still wonderfully moist. Now, the reason it's often called a "Boiled" Fruit Cake, is because the brown sugar, water, butter, spices, and raisins are, in fact, "boiled". Once this boiled mixture has been left to cool to lukewarm, all that's left is to fold in the rest of the ingredients. And that's it. Then just pour the batter into your pan and bake. Now, if possible, do try to resist eating this cake right away. Although it doesn't need weeks to age, it does benefit from being stored, at least a day or two. 

A few things about this recipe are worth mentioning. For the dried fruit, you can just use raisins. But I have used both dark and golden raisins, along with currants, and some dried cranberries. Spices can also be adjusted to your taste, adding more or less of each. Finally, if you are an avid fan of fruit cakes and want to make them year round, it might be a good idea to pick up extra candied peel during the holiday season as it can be difficult to find during the rest of the year.