A master recipe that has won numerous awards is this one. It has a few steps that may be used to pork spareribs, country-style ribs, or essentially any other variety of pork rib; just increase the oven time for meatier pieces. Use some moistened wood chips when grilling. The flavor of the ribs will improve with grill smokiness!
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 2 hrs 20 mins |
| Additional Time: | 5 mins |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 40 mins |
| Servings: | 10 |
| Yield: | 1 8-inch cake |
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups white sugar
- 12 ounces candied mixed fruit
- 1 cup milk
- ¾ cup butter
- 5 ounces glace cherries, roughly chopped
- 2 ounces candied mixed citrus peel
- 2 ounces chopped walnuts
- 1 teaspoon ground allspice
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 12 ounces sifted self-rising flour
- 2 large eggs
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (160 degrees C). Line an 8-inch deep cake pan with parchment paper.
- Place sugar, candied mixed fruit, milk, butter, cherries, citrus peel, walnuts, allspice, and baking soda in a medium-sized saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
- Stir flour and eggs into fruit mixture. Pour batter into the prepared pan. Wrap the outside of the pan with brown paper or newspaper.
- Bake cake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes. Reduce temperature to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) and continue baking cake for 1 1/2 hours.
- Let cake sit at room temperature for 5 minutes, then invert it onto a wired rack. Remove parchment paper, flip cake, and allow to cool completely on the rack. Cake may be stored wrapped in foil and in an airtight container for up to 6 months.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 588 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 99 g |
| Cholesterol | 76 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Protein | 7 g |
| Saturated Fat | 10 g |
| Sodium | 621 mg |
| Sugars | 38 g |
| Fat | 19 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Thanks for sharing Mark. Cooking this right now for a 60th wedding cake. Recipes are to get loved and shared it does t matter their origin although this was probably handed down through generations. You may even be related to Joyce.
i made it and baked it in two loaf pans. absolutely the best, moist, delicious fruit cake i have made
My family enjoys this recipe. I have made it for the holidays several times. I never use citron, I use a different blend of dried fruits and fresh lemon orange zest. Very good!
The best recipe ever! I have used this recipe for 15 years and still love it!
This is a good basis for a fruitcake! I used raisins, dried apricots and cherries, dates and a few prunes. I didn’t have the usual fruit used in fruitcakes ( I made this one COLD spring day that seemed more like winter than summer). I love the flavor and will make a more conventional fruitcake combo in November adding some of the candied fruit. I’ve been looking for a good recipe for fruitcake for a long time and I think this is it!
I was very excited about this recipe, but it didn’t work for me. The flavour was great, but the cake seemed too dry. Not at all what I was looking for. The boiled mixture looked like a nice smooth caramel, which lends a nice flavour and smell to the cake, but it is too dry.
I have made this particular fruit cake for the last two holiday seasons. We love it! I have varied the types of candied fruit, even making my own to add.
Like most others, I give this recipe 5 stars. All the reviews had good ideas that I wanted to incorporate, so I printed the recipe and jotted down various ideas. I soaked my chopped fruit in Captain Morgans Rum 3 to 5 days in advance. I really like lots of pecans in my fruitcake, so I added 2 cups (not chopped) vs. 1 cup. I also used 1/4 c. molasses and cut back 1/4 c. on the sugar and milk. I baked at 325° for 25 minutes and then 300° for 42 minutes. Next time I will line the bottoms of the loaf pans with parchment paper. Had a little trouble with one sticking to the bottom. Before I wrapped these up in waxed paper and cling wrap, I basted with rum. Now I’m basting with rum about every 5 days until I’m ready to giving these away. When I pull them out to baste, I have a taster loaf that I’ve tried a couple times now. Oh man! Is it ever good. I think the recipe could be renamed Fruitcake Crack or Fruitcake Addiction!
Like most others, I give this recipe 5 stars. All the reviews had good ideas that I wanted to incorporate, so I printed the recipe and jotted down various ideas. I soaked my chopped fruit in Captain Morgans Rum 3 to 5 days in advance. I really like lots of pecans in my fruitcake, so I added 2 cups (not chopped) vs. 1 cup. I also used 1/4 c. molasses and cut back 1/4 c. on the sugar and milk. I baked at 325° for 25 minutes and then 300° for 42 minutes. Next time I will line the bottoms of the loaf pans with parchment paper. Had a little trouble with one sticking to the bottom. Before I wrapped these up in waxed paper and cling wrap, I basted with rum. Now I’m basting with rum about every 5 days until I’m ready to giving these away. When I pull them out to baste, I have a taster loaf that I’ve tried a couple times now. Oh man! Is it ever good. I think the recipe could be renamed Fruitcake Crack or Fruitcake Addiction!
Excellent Easy to make I enjoyed making it and eating it It is just a nice fruit cake
this recipe for boiled Christmas cake is my recipe given to me from my mother in Scotland this is an authentic recipe,how did this guy get this!!!!!
Great recipe liked by all who sampled. I added figs.
I have made this several times to use as both Christmas cake and a birthday cake. And I really love the cake it makes! I read Dorothy’s review and had to read it again, sounds like she used humans as ingredients, thanks for a really big smile to start my day Dorothy!
EXCELLENT! I have always bought fruitcakes that are about $40 + shipping each! I don’t need to buy a fruitcake anymore! I doubled the nuts to 1 cup but next time will probably use 2+ cups nuts. I used about 1 cup mixed fruit and the rest made up of dates, golden and regular raisins. Soaked all fruit in dark rum about 12 hrs before. One significant change was that I substituted 1/4 cup of the white sugar with 1/4 cup dark molasses. I don’t like the taste of molasses but I like a dark fruitcake and it was not molassey tasting, but gave it the color I wanted. I used about 1/4 cup less milk to compensate for the extra liquid. So to be clear, I used 1 1/4 cup white sugar and 1/4 cup molasses. Also added about 50% more allspice plus about 1/4-1/2 tsp extra cloves, cinnamon and ginger as we like a spicy cake. Still wasn’t too spicy when done though. I put this in 2 greased loaf/bread pans and did not wrap the pans with newspaper – what is that for anyway? Baked 25 mins at 325 then 50-55 mins at 300. Could have baked a little shorter like maybe 45 mins at 325 and would have been fine. I had no idea what to do when they came out of the oven but I removed from pans, brushed w/dark rum only on one side, wrapped in foil and refrigerated overnight. Opened up the next morning, brushed all sides with dark rum and re-wrapped in plastic then foil–but I sliced off a piece to taste and it was AWESOME!!! Just wish it had more nuts, but great flavor! I will make this every year!
I posted when I first found the recipe about a missing ingredient…duh on me, it was there but I just didn’t see it listed at the end 🙂 Anyway, for my first fruitcake ever, this turned out beautiful! Reading other reviews it seems that it’s wonderfully flexible as far as ingredients preferred. I tossed in some raisins I had, added twice as many walnuts as called for, added a bit more spices to the mix and tossed some pumpkin pie spice I had on hand. WOW! This converted three people who claim to hate fruitcake to fruitcake lovers…or should I say, loving *this* fruitcake. It’s been requested every holiday now so it’ll be in heavy rotation! And boy! Was it nice & heavy! It really is almost too easy to make. I didn’t use the brown paper around the angel food cake pan and it turned out perfect, right down to the minute. Thank you to both the original poster *and* his Mom for the recipe!!! Ya’ done good!!! 😀
I have made this 2 Christmases in a row and WOW, it is incredible! I used candied fruitcake mixed fruit that you buy in the store that I soaked in amaretto for about 2 weeks prior to baking. The day I prepared it, I used regular dried fruit. This year I used apricots and strawberries and it was delicious. Instead of mixed spice, I used a combination of nutmeg, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice. I also added vanilla extract. It’s really such a versatile recipe, as long as you get the basic preparation. I feel you can experiment with different fruits, nuts, and spices. I also didn’t use the newspaper…I just covered the pan with parchment paper on the inside and foil on the outside. Don’t be intimidated by fruitcake or think that it’s not for you. I have converted people who hated fruitcake with this recipe. It is so moist, dense, and sweet. I can see this becoming a Christmas tradition in my household. You must try it!
My first fruit cake attempt and I loved it. I mixed up the dried fruit to my preference (Don’t like the green/red cherries) and it turned out well. I also added more nuts than it called for and sprinkled it with some rum before wrapping it up in plastic wrap and foil to rest for a few days.
Cake is simple to make. baked 2 smaller cakes & it took an hour in total to bake. Made it early for Christmas. Cut one to taste. really yummy & rich colour & light caramel taste (prob due to using brown sugar) & fruits did not sink..(which usually happen in past recipes). Next time will use white sugar. Keeper recipe 🙂
It needed something to fit my tastes, so I changed a few things. I used brown sugar, 1 Tb cocoa powder, added raisins, and put in rum extract. Then the spices I used were cinnamon, allspice, and corriander. What I got was a beautiful,dark, cake.
FANTASTIC!!!
GREAT! I passed on the citrus peel and glace cherries I used dried dates, figs, golden raisins, cranberries, apricot and 2 kinds of dried cherries. I also added a mini bottle of Gran Mariner to the boiled fruit. Everyone who made a face when I said fruitcake came back for seconds.