Brandy Aged Fruitcake
Brandy Aged Fruitcake is so rich & delicious. Brandy softens the fruit and mellows the cake part of the fruitcake and it acts as a preservative. You’ll become a fruitcake convert.
Why do American’s hate fruitcake?
I get it, really. The fruitcakes that you find in the grocery and the big box stores are gross. I don’t know what the green things are in those cakes, and I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know.
I’m not surprised so many Americans think they hate fruitcake, even if they’ve never tasted it.
With this recipe, I’m on a mission to change as many American minds about fruitcake as I can.
Ingredients for making Aged Fruitcake:
Fruit & Nuts:
Cake Batter:
Ingredient notes:
- Dried Fruits: Use the best quality dried fruits and nuts for this cake. Candied orange peel and candied cherries can be found in the grocery store starting in the fall, but they are also available on-line.
- Alcohol: The alcohol is key to the flavor, texture and preserving for this cake. I prefer a high abv slightly sweet alcohol like brandy or rum. You can also use whiskey or bourbon. Don’t use lower abv liquid like wine for aging, you need the higher alcohol as a preservative.
- Brown sugar: This is a “dark” fruitcake which includes brown sugar rather than white sugar. Light or dark brown sugar is fine.
Scroll through the process photos and watch the video to see how to make, age and finish a traditional Christmas fruitcake:
- Mix the dried fruits and nuts with lemon zest, juice and brandy.
- Cover and set aside for at least 12 hours or up to 2 days.
- Add the eggs to the butter and sugar.
- Add the flour.
- Add the soaked fruit.
- Mix to combine then spread into the cake pan.
FAQs about making traditional aged fruitcake:
The alcohol moistens the cake and fruit, flavors the cake and acts as a preservative. It’s hard for bacteria to live in a high alcohol/low moisture cake.
I like to use brandy, but you can also use whiskey, bourbon, sherry or rum instead.
The liquor not only softens the fruit part of the fruitcake, it also softens and mellows the cake part of the fruitcake and keeps the cake from spoiling. There is no good substitute for the liquor in this recipe.
As the name Brand-Aged Fruitcake, implies, this recipe needs to be made several weeks, or even several months, before you want to serve it. I usually bake my fruitcakes by mid-October so they’re well-aged by Christmas.
The cake can be finished with a layer of marzipan and a layer of fondant or royal icing. But you don’t need to decorate the cakes at all. Fruitcake can certainly be served without any icing or marzipan.
Once the cake is aged, it can keep at room temperature for several months. Keep the cake wrapped in plastic and in a closed container like a cake tin. Once a week brush any cut edges or un-iced parts of the cake with more of the liquor used for aging.
Watch this video to see how to cover a cake with rolled fondant.
You’ll also love this Almond Filled Stollen on your holiday menu.
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Brandy-Aged Fruitcake Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ½ oz almonds (½ cup coarsely ground)
- 3 oz walnuts (1 cup chopped)
- 12 oz dark raisins (2 ¼ cups)
- 8 oz light raisins (1 ⅓ cups)
- 3 oz candied orange peel (⅓ cup)
- 3 oz candied cherries (⅓ cup)
- 6 oz zante currants (1 cup)
- 1 lemon (grated zest juice)
- 6 oz brandy (⅔ cup (plus more for aging, see note))
- 7 ½ oz all purpose flour (1 ½ cups, see note)
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ginger
- ½ teaspoon table salt
- 6 oz unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 6 oz brown sugar (¾ cup)
- 4 large eggs (room temperature)
Decoration (optional)
- 8 oz apricot preserves (1 cup)
- 1 recipe marzipan
- 1 recipe rolled fondant
- recipe Royal Icing
- Marzipan holly and silver dragees for decoration
Instructions
- Combine 1 ½ oz almonds, 3 oz walnuts, 12 oz dark raisins, 8 oz light raisins, 3 oz candied orange peel, 3 oz candied cherries, 6 oz zante currants, with the zest and juice of 1 lemon. Add 6 oz brandy and toss to coat the fruit and nuts with the liquor. Cover the bowl and let it sit overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Line a 9"x 3" cake pan with a parchment round. (see note)
- Sift together 7 ½ oz all purpose flour, 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ½ teaspoon nutmeg, ½ teaspoon ginger and ½ teaspoon table salt. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream 6 oz unsalted butter and 6 oz brown sugar until light and aerated. Scrape down the bowl and the beater. Add 4 large eggs, two at a time. Mix until combined then scrape down the bowl and the beater.
- With the mixer running on low speed, add the dry ingredients in 3 batches and mix until combined. Fold in the soaked fruit and all the liquid.
- Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and spread it out to an even layer. Bake until a toothpick poked in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 55 minutes. As soon as the pan is removed from the oven pour ¼ cup of brandy over the top of the cake.
- Cool the cake to room temperature before removing from the pan. Wrap the cake in two layers of plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature.
- Once a week for at least 4 weeks, unwrap the cake and generously brush on all sides with more brandy. The cake can be served as is or you can ice and decorate the cake with marzipan and fondant.
Ice & Decorate the cake (optional)
- Unwrap the cake. Glue the cake to a cardboard cake circle using a dab of royal icing. Trim the cake cardboard to the same size as the cake. Place on another cardboard circle or serving plate.
- To finish with Royal Icing: Make a batch of fluffy royal icing. Ice the top of the cake with thick swirls of icing to resemble snow. Decorate with marzipan or fondant holly or other edible decorations. Wrap a wide ribbon around the sides of the cake.
- To finish with Rolled Fondant: Ice the cake with apricot preserves. Roll the marzipan to a 14" round. Roll the marzipan onto the rolling pin then transfer and unroll onto the cake. Trim the marzipan flush with the bottom of the cake and board. Brush the marzipan with brandy.
- Roll the fondant to a 14″ round and cover the cake over the marzipan. Trim the fondant flush with the bottom of the cake and board.
- Add dragees, stencils, glitter and marzipan holly or other decorations as you like.
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Hiya-I would like to omit all the nuts. Do you recommend substituting with anything or can I proceed with the recipe as is minus the nuts?
You can omit the nuts.
Hi Eileen, I baked the cake last night. It turned nicely look. I used rum instead. As soon as
the pan is removed from the oven, my friend called and talked for a long time, so I did not pour 1/4 cup of liquor over the top of the cake. It was almost midnight, I just brush some rum on it and I did not take away the parchment paper that lined the pan, I cover the top with a piece of paper and wrap it with foil and put it in a container. Is this ok? This is my first time baking a fruit cake using all purpose flour. I did once using almond & coconut flour. The taste was good but it was very loose. As my dietitian advises me not to take too much food that make of white flour and eat less fat & sugar. I decreased the butter to 150g and sugar to 135g. I only have 780 g of mixed fruits as I was making a mistake measuring them. Do you have a recipe that using almond & coconut flour? I brushed a bit more rum just now to it and will follow you to brush it every week. I can wait to taste it. Hope you still answer questions. Best wishes to you in new 2023.
Hannah
As far as not pouring the liquor right away that’s no problem. Since you decreased the butter and sugar by a fairly small amount I think it will probably be ok. You used only about 3/4 the weight of fruit so your cake will have a different texture. I don’t have a recipe that uses almond or coconut flour. The fruitcake needs the structure of the wheat flour to hold together. That’s why the cake you made previously was very loose.
I like it, easy to execute and very delicious. It is my favourite cake
The best and easy to execute recipe. Very delicious and soft cake
Made this cake and when I flipped it out of the pan using a wire rack the cake broke. I have it bound up tightly together with plastic wrap. Late night baking and it was still slightly warm. Was that the problem? Is there a fix for this? Do I continue to bathe it in rum and pretend it’s still whole?
Did it break basically into two pieces? If so, I would definitely keep aging the cake and wrapping it tightly it might stick back together. Are you planning to cover the cake with marzipan and fondant? If so, I think you can get away with “pretending it’s whole”. If nothing else you can try using preserves to glue it back together. It’s a cake decorator’s secret that cracked cakes can almost always be saved.
@Eileen Gray, yes, it broke in half and the wrapping caused another fault. I wasn’t planning on tackling fondant. If the cake remains broken, at what point do I glue with preserves? And was the break because the cake was not completely cool? This is for us and friends who won’t judge, so the cake doesn’t need to be beautiful, just delicious.
The cake should always be delicious before beautiful! When I had my wedding cake business I had a customer tell me their family argued if my cakes were more delicious or more beautiful. They agreed that my cakes were a little more delicious than beautiful. It was the best professional compliment ever!
I’m guessing your cake cracked because it was warm. Although I’ve de-panned warm fruitcakes without a problem. Could just be a fluke of a bunch of fruit in one spot causing a weak point. Anyway, I would keep aging it and when you’re ready to serve it just put it on a pretty serving plate and sprinkle the top with powdered sugar. If you can just nudge the cake together leave it at that. You can try putting a little preserves in the crack to help glue it together. Another option would be to cut slices of cake and present them that way.