Festive Dried Fruit & Nut Christmas Cake

Fragrant, boozy, a real winter delight! Christmas pie is traditionally rich in nuts, dried fruits and spices. It is this hearty, rosy dessert, imbued with home comfort, that will warm you with its taste and aroma during the cold season and set you in a festive mood.
cook time: 74h 20 min
Gavin Tanner
Festive Dried Fruit & Nut Christmas Cake

Nutrition Facts (per serving)

336
Calories
10g
Fat
54g
Carbs
4g
Protein

Ingredients (10 portions)

Basic:

Vanilla sugar 1 tsp
Sugar 80 g
Wheat flour 150 g
Butter 90 g
Baking powder 1 tsp
Eggs 2 pc
Dried fruit mixture 200 g
Whiskey 70 ml
Dry spices to taste

To submit:

Powdered sugar 2 tbsp

For the glaze:

Powdered sugar 6 tbsp
Lemon juice 2 tsp

Recipe instructions

Step 1

Step 1
How to bake a Christmas cake? Nuts and dried fruits must be soaked in strong aromatic alcohol in advance. Cognac or whiskey will do. For dried fruits, I have dried apricots, figs, raisins and candied fruits. And from nuts — hazelnuts, cashews, peanuts and almonds. You can choose dried fruits and nuts to suit your taste or take a ready-made mixture. If you like spicy baked goods, you can add cinnamon, ground ginger, cardamom and a little ground cloves to the mixture. Just a teaspoon of spices.

Step 2

Step 2
Place dried fruits washed and cut into medium pieces into a deep bowl, add nuts and pour in whiskey. If you donʼt drink alcohol, you can use regular boiling water. But then the taste of the pie will be completely different. We need the mixture to absorb all the liquid. It took me 3 full days. It will be much faster with boiling water due to the high temperature.

Step 3

Step 3
Prepare all ingredients for the pie. By this time, dried fruits should swell and absorb whiskey, and nuts should become soft. Take butter and eggs at room temperature.

Step 4

Step 4
Place soft butter in a bowl and add sugar and vanilla sugar.

Step 5

Step 5
Using a whisk, lightly whisk the sugar into the butter so that it does not scatter to the sides at high speed of the mixer. Then beat the mixture until fluffy for 4 minutes.

Step 6

Step 6
Add chicken eggs to the mixture one at a time, mixing everything with a mixer until smooth.

Step 7

Step 7
2 tbsp. mix flour with dried fruits. It is believed that this way the nuts will not settle to the bottom during baking.

Step 8

Step 8
Sift the rest of the flour and baking powder into the dough. Flour of the highest grade. You can add a pinch of salt to the dough for taste. Using a mixer, stir the mixture until smooth. The dough should be thick, similar to the one in the photo.

Step 9

Step 9
Mix the dough with the nuts using a spatula.

Step 10

Step 10
Place the dough into the mold. I have a silicone mold measuring 22*6 cm. The height of the side is 6 cm. The mold is rectangular (or round with a hole in the middle) for better baking of the pie, since the dough is heavy. Bake the pie in an oven preheated to 160 ⁰C for 1-1.5 hours. Check readiness with a wooden toothpick.

Step 11

Step 11
Remove the pie from the oven and cool.

Step 12

Step 12
Letʼs cover the cake with glaze. I recommend using freshly squeezed lemon juice. Add lemon juice, half a teaspoon at a time, into a bowl with powdered sugar and evaluate the consistency of the glaze. More powder may be needed than indicated.

Step 13

Step 13
There are two options for glaze thickness. This thick layer will need to be applied and leveled with a spoon or spatula. It does not flow and is opaque.

Step 14

Step 14
A thinner glaze is simply poured on top of the cake. It will be translucent.

Step 15

Step 15
I chose the second option. Decorate the cake and allow the icing time to harden and become matte.

Additional rubrics

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