christmas fruit cake

A lightly spiced, fluffy Christmas cake filled with fruit and nuts. A speciality in Portugal, Bolo Rei or Portuguese Kings Cake, is super easy to bake at home, so get ready to make your Kings Cake &quot;crown&quot; this holiday season!

Bolo Rei (Portuguese Christmas Kings Cake)

plain flour / all purpose flour

tbsp dried yeast ((around 14 grams dried yeast))

sugar

butter

eggs

egg (whisked - for basting)

salt

lemon zest (from 1 lemon)

ml milk

ml port wine (or brandy or sweet sherry)

g nuts

g fruit

Sprinkle icing sugar / powdered sugar

strawberry jam ((jelly))

tsp water

Place the chopped candied fruit and raisins in a bowl with the port to infuse.

Rest

Mix the yeast with warm milk and let rest in a warm place for 5-10 minutes until slightly frothy on top.

Knead

In a large bowl, mix the flour, sugar, lemon zest, butter, whole eggs and salt. Then pour in the yeast milk and knead together.

Once mixed, add in the port and fruits mixture and the chopped nuts. Knead together until well combined.

1st Rise

Mould the dough to be rounded or in a ball shape within the bowl, scraping down the edges and slightly sprinkle with flour before covering it over with cling wrap and a cloth. Allow to rise to double the size. This should take around 1.5 hours, depending on your climate.

2nd Rise

Line a baking tray with paper and a light sprinkling of flour. Place the dough onto the tray, forming a ring or &quot;crown&quot;, without handling the dough too much. Place a cup or dish in the centre to keep the ring from closing up. Allow to rise for another 30min - 1 hour.

Preheat

Baste

Baste with whisked egg and garnish with remaining nuts, dried fruit slices and icing sugar.

Bake

Pop in the oven and bake for 35 to 45 minutes.

Glaze

Optional: Brush the top with the jam and hot water mix to add a finishing shine before serving.

This eggless fruit cake is a light, moist, crumbly christmas fruit cake. This is also an egg-free and vegan recipe of christmas cake. 

Fruit Cake | Christmas Cake

golden raisins

black raisins ((seedless))

cashews

candied orange peels

apricots

dates (- small to medium-sized)

tutti frutti (- optional)

cherries (or glazed cherries)

rum (or 1 cup fresh orange juice

all-purpose flour (- 187 grams)

whole wheat flour (- 120 grams)

demerara sugar

soy milk

apple cider vinegar (or regular white vinegar)

baking soda

baking powder

vanilla extract (or ½ teaspoon vanilla essence)

cinnamon

green cardamoms

allspice

nutmeg nutmeg

(- optional)

ginger ((ginger powder) - optional)

Firstly chop all the nuts and dry fruits and take them in a bowl or a jar. Pour rum in the bowl or jar.

Cover and let the dry fruits soak for 12 or 24 hours or for 3 days. If you have used apple juice or orange juice to soak the dry fruits, then cover the bowl with an air-tight lid or a tightly with a clingfilm wrap and keep in the refrigerator.

After some hours or every day stir or shake the bowl or jar, so that all the nuts and dry fruits get soaked properly.

Soaking nuts and dry fruits

In a spice-grinder or dry grinder, grind the spices listed above, under the heading &quot;for ground spice mix&quot; except for ginger powder. Set aside.

Prepare a loaf pan or a round cake pan by greasing it very well with oil. You can also line the cake pan with butter paper.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (356 degrees Fahrenheit)for 20 minutes.

Other preparations

Sieve the flours, baking powder and the the ground powdered spice mix. You can also add ginger powder at this step. Note that ginger powder is optional.

Add the soaked dry fruits together with the leftover rum or apple juice/orange juice. 

Add the oil and demerara sugar or your choice of brown sugar or regular white sugar. Also add vanilla extract. Gently mix together the ingredients until just combined, making sure to not over-mix.

In a bowl or mug add soy milk. Now add apple cider vinegar and stir gently.

Add baking soda and stir thoroughly. Add this frothing mixture to the cake batter.

Stir and mix quickly but evenly. 

Making cake batter

Pour in the cake pan.

Shake the pan lightly so that the cake batter is spread evenly throughout the whole pan.

Use a spatula to even the top of the cake.

Bake the cake in the preheated oven for 180 degrees celsius (356 degrees Fahrenheit) for 50 minutes to 60 minutes or more or less depending on your type of oven. 

The eggless fruit cake will have a lovely golden brown color. Test the doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center and it should come out clean.

Let the cake pan cool completely on a wired rack or stand before flipping the cake out onto a plate.

Baking

Wrap the Christmas fruit cake in a cling film or store in an air-tight container at room temperature for 3 to 4 days.

The flavors mature over a period of time and thus the eggless fruit cake tastes very good after some days. If you stay in a warm climate then keep Christmas fruit cake in the fridge.

Storage

Later, slice and serve the eggless fruit cake with a glass of dairy or plant-based milk, or a hot cup of cocoa. You can also serve it as a sweet snack.

Serving suggestions

An easy recipe for a traditional British Christmas cake. Classic make ahead recipe for a dense flavorful fruit cake. Fed weekly with bourbon until ready to assemble with marzipan and fondant.

Easy British Christmas Cake

unsalted butter

brown sugar (firmly packed)

bourbon (plus extra for feeding the cake)

lemon

orange

tsp vanilla extract

all purpose flour (or plain flour)

almonds (or almond flour)

nutmeg

½ tsp ground allspice

¼ tsp ground cloves

oz marzipan (or almond paste (either golden

sugar sugar

rindless orange preserve (or apricot jam)

Begin by rehydrating the dried fruits. Place these in a large pan and add the butter, sugar, lemon juice and zest, orange juice and zest, and bourbon. Cook over a medium heat until the butter has melted and the mixture is boiling. Lower the temperature and simmer for about 5 minutes. Then tip the contents into a large mixing bowl and allow to cool for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 300°F (150C/130C Fan) and line the bottom and sides of a deep sided 8&quot; or 9&quot; cake pan with a double layer of parchment paper.

Once the fruit mixture has been allowed to cool, add the flour, ground almonds, spices, vanilla and eggs to the mixing bowl and stir thoroughly with a spatula or wooden spoon to combine. Take care to ensure there are no clumps of flour left unmixed.

Pour this into the prepared cake pan and bake in the lower half of the oven for 2 hours until a skewer comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and use a toothpick to make holes all over the top of the cake. Spoon a couple of tablespoons of rum over the top and brush so that this soaks into the holes.

Allow the cake to cool in the pan, before removing and peeling away the parchment paper.

Store the cake in an airtight container, wrapped in parchment and feed with 2 tablespoons of rum every week until about a week before you are intending to serve.

A few days after your last feed, roll your marzipan out on a countertop dusted with powdered icing sugar until it is about ¼&quot; thick and large enough to cover your cake.

Heat the orange preserve in a small saucepan to melt. Use this to brush all over the top and sides of your cake.

Carefully transfer the marzipan on to the cake and press to cover the top and sides smoothly. Trim any edges to fit.

Roll the fondant in a similar way. Brush the marzipan layer again with the warmed preserve and cover with the fondant.

Use any excess fondant for decorating the cake in a festive pattern such as holly leaves and berries. These can be attached to the cake with some more preserve or just a bit of water.

Instructions for Assembly

This looks like such an interesting cake to make. Although I haven't done much with fondant, I'm intrigued. And I love marzipan!

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Bolo Rei (Portuguese Christmas King...

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Top 3 christmas fruit cake recipes from across the web

The most viewed christmas fruit cake recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engineic_arrow_forward_48px

Top Tags

Bolo Rei (Portuguese Christmas King...

Fruit Cake | Christmas Cake

Easy British Christmas Cake

The most viewed christmas fruit cake recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine